Last Mile
by JolieFille
Summary: This is a tale of friendship between four young men and the romantic relationships than encircle them. Two marauders, two love stories. How they each found love, endured it, and how one of them let it slip from his fingers.
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1- The New Girl  
  
Dominique Fiore sat alone in her train compartment on the Hogwarts Express, staring out the window, looking at nothing in particular. She yawned from not only boredom, but from fatigue. After all, she had to get up extra early to get to Kings Crossing all the way from Paris. The thought of leaving the places she loved made her groan. She loved her house in Paris. Well, not so much her house, she hated her house, and her parents, but she loved her room. She was surrounded by all of her things. But in light of everything that had happened to her recently, Dominique was forced to leave most of her belongings behind in her now empty home in Paris.   
  
She would miss all the places in Paris. The cafes, the symphony hall, the ballet studio, all the places she went to keep herself away from the house. Now she was away from that house for good. Dominique brushed a lock of her black hair out of her face as she thought of the paradoxical relief she felt for going to Hogwarts.  
  
It was the last day of classes, and Dominique burst out of the classroom after her last exam, hand in hand with her boyfriend of two years, Kyle.   
  
"We're done!!" Kyle grinned.  
  
"I know!! Just one more year, can you believe it? One more year, and we're out of this place!" Dominique said happily.   
  
"Yea," Kyle said, leading Dominique down the brightly lit corridors of Beauxbatons School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, "I think I'll miss this place though, you know? So many fond memories…" his voice trailed, staring at the portraits they passed by.  
  
"yea, that's true. But hey, you're not supposed to feel those pangs until next year, hullo!" Dominique laughed.  
  
"you speak the truth dear," they stopped at a heavy oak door, "ah, the prefects' bathroom, I'll miss this place!" he said, running his hand over the smooth oak finishings.  
  
"Er…you'll have all of next year to use it…" Dominique said, looking at her boyfriend strangely, "uh, honey, you do know it's only a bathroom, right?"   
  
Kyle turned to his girlfriend, looking almost mortally offended. "First off, you've never been in there. It's like the closest thing to heaven on earth! And second, you think I'm going to be prefect next year? Please, Nicky! I'll be head boy for sure, then I'll get my own dormitory and bathroom, which of course you know you're more than welcome to share with me!" he said, grabbing a hold of Dominique's waist and pulling her closer.  
  
"Mmm…yea…" Dominique said, as Kyle brushed his mouth along her neck. Dominique felt her muscles tighten as he touched her. Sensing her uneasiness, Kyle looked up at her.  
  
"You're not afraid of me, are you?" he asked in a whisper.  
  
"No."  
  
Kyle ran his hand down Dominique's arm, all the way to her hand, and just he took hold of it, he opened the prefects' bathroom door. "Why don't you come in? It'd be a shame if you never got to see this place before you left." Kyle said as he pulled Dominique into the bathroom.  
  
Dominique looked around. Yes, Kyle seemed quite justified in getting offended. Bathroom was quite an understatement. Aside from the line of ivory bathroom stalls and sinks, there were several bathtubs that were the large enough to fit at least three or four people quite comfortably. Next to tubs was a large, bubbling jaccuzzi, and the air was filled with fresh, floral scents.   
  
However, Dominique had little time to marvel at her surroundings, for the next thing she knew, she was pushed up against the wall, and Kyle's lips were on hers. As her body grew more tense, she could feel Kyle pushing himself harder against her. As Kyle removed his lips, he moved his hands from her hips to her front, and took hold of the zipper that fastened her skirt.   
  
"Kyle, I don't think"—  
  
"Shh", Kyle kissed her again, "you're ready…"  
  
Dominique tried to push him away. "No, I don't think so. Please Kyle, I want to go…oww!!"   
  
Just as Dominique had writhed herself free from Kyle's tight grip, he had once again, shoved her against the wall, and grabbed her wrists.  
  
"Kyle, you're hurting me!" Dominique whimpered.  
  
"Then shut up, it'll make it easier for the both of us!" he hissed.  
  
"What's gotten into you?! Let me go…" Dominique pleaded, trying to break free from his arms.  
  
"Fiesty, aren't we?" Kyle grinned, taking her arms and twisting them around very harshly, causing Dominique to yelp from the pain. "That won't do" he said, pulling his wand out and putting a silencing charm on her. "Well, while we're at it, I guess I'll just tie you up…" and ropes sprang from his wand, wrapping themselves around Dominique's wrists. "Now," Kyle said, pushing her to the ground, and putting a locking charm on the bathroom door, "where were we?" he grinned as he knelt to the ground and pulled Dominique's skirt off of her.  
  
"Excuse me dear…"  
  
Dominique's eyes snapped towards the door. A lady with a cart of food stood at the doorway. "sorry, just sort of dozed off I guess…"  
  
"It's ok dear. Would you like anything off the trolley?"  
  
"Er, no thank you."  
  
"I'll be in the front with the conductor if you change your mind." The lady smiled at her and shut the door.  
  
Several compartments down, a group of boys were stacking cards on a small table that they had transfigured from one of their schoolbooks.   
  
"Easy does it…" said a boy with dirty blonde hair to a short, round boy with brown hair.  
  
"yes!!!" the three boys sighed with relief.  
  
"way to go, Peter," a black haired boy said to the round boy, "it didn't go down this time!"  
  
"Thanks Sirius" Peter smiled gratefully at the black haired boy.   
  
Just then, the door burst open, and the cards went tumbling down.  
  
"Guess who's head girl! Guess who's head girl!" shouted the boy who just burst in.  
  
"I dunno, you??" Sirius laughed. James gave a fake smile back. "Haha, very funny, pretty boy!"  
  
"You can tell us when you restack all of our cards, James." Remus said, sitting back.   
  
James pulled out his wand and in an instant the cards were neatly stacked up on the table. "Evans! Lily Evans!! Future Lily Evans Potter!!" shouted James, triumphantly.   
  
"Don't flatter yourself" said a girl who stood behind James. She was tall, thin, and had brown hair, with large, bright brown eyes to match.   
  
"Oi, hello Kierra"—  
  
"You're blocking the way James" she said, pushing him into his compartment and shutting the door so she could continue on her way.  
  
"Nice girl" Remus said, not looking up from his book.  
  
"Oi, guess what else I heard, when I was trying to find out who head girl was"  
  
"Er"—  
  
"well, you never will, so I'll tell you!"  
  
"Thanks for saving us the trouble, Prongs" said Sirius, who kicked his feet up onto the windowsill.   
  
"So I heard there's this new girl, in our year…apparently from Beauxbatons"—  
  
"Oh, that's right! I forgot to tell you!" Everyone turned to Remus.   
  
"Dominique Fiore. We used to be neighbors when we were little…we played together. Anyway when I moved we became pen pals… and she told me she was coming here this year".  
  
"Why so suddenly? Why in her last year?" Peter asked.  
  
"Well, her parents were killed in an auto accident. Her mom was a muggle, you see…and Dumbledore is her only living relative"—  
  
"She's related to Dumbledore?!"  
  
"No way!"  
  
"Maybe I should ask her out then!"  
  
Remus rolled his eyes.  
  
"Is she good looking?" asked Peter.  
  
"I don't know! I haven't seen her in like 10 years!"  
  
"Well, was she hot when you knew her?" asked James.  
  
"Well, see, I was only 6 when I moved…and by then my hormones hadn't even begun to develop…so…I don't know…"  
  
"Well, what does she look like?"  
  
"Probably like any other French girl…hairy armpits and a nose stuck in the air…" Sirius said, picking up Remus' book, "hey, you mind if I look at this Moony?"  
  
"Not at all, and don't talk about her like that, she's a good friend of mine." Remus said, a tone of annoyance in his voice.  
  
"sorry mate"  
  
"Oi Padfoot, isn't your family French?" Peter asked. Sirius lowered Remus' book to look at Peter. "if you go back a few generations, yes. But it doesn't matter, alright?" Sirius said coldly, returning to his book.  
  
"Woo hoo, we're there! I mean, we're here! Come on guys, I don't want to be late for the feast!" James said, pulling his school robes on, and bursting out the door, with Peter, Sirius, and Remus at his heels. "Move it first years, I'm head boy! I've got the authority to hex you all if you don't get out of my way!!" James shouted as he parted the crowd of scared and timid looking first years. "Just kidding!" James grinned as he saw Hagrid looking at him disapprovingly, but trying to hide a smile.   
  
As Dominique got off the train, she saw two large, boulder-looking guys that looked too stupid to string two words together, follow around a taller, leaner guy with blonde hair, who was ordering them around like they were house elves. Dominique frowned with disgust as the two larger boys obeyed. 'Ass kissers' she thought to herself. She shifted her gaze over to a shout she heard nearby.   
  
Dominique looked at the boy who stood several meters in front of her, who was shouting loudly. He was a tall, very attractive, well built boy, with jet black hair, and thick framed glasses, yelling at the first years to move out of his way. 'I'm surrounded by deadbeats',  
  
she thought as she made her way through the crowd, glaring at the boy who was ordering around first years.  
  
James looked at the girl with black hair who passed by him. Had she just frowned at him? 'What did I do to her?' thought James. 'Arrogant snob…' he thought, as he hopped into one of the carriages, that held Remus, Sirius and Peter.   
  
"Well, that was invigorating!" James beamed, "Nothing I love better than picking on helpless little first years! Well, that and Snivellus of course!"  
  
"James, I don't think Lily would be too impressed with your hexing. If you want her to like you, maybe you should stop with all of that." Said Remus, smiling at his friend.  
  
James' face dropped for a moment, but then looked at the carriage ahead of him, in which sat the girl with the black hair.  
  
"yea…maybe you're right…maybe I should just limit my hexing to the people who…deserve it more…" James said, eyeing the girl.  
  
"yea, like Snivellus" said Sirius, casually.  
  
"yea, him too" James said.  
  
"Him too? Who else is there?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Er, no one. I just meant him." James said, sitting back and reclining his feet onto Sirius' lap.  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes, looking menaced by James' feet, but said nothing and just looked ahead at the castle. James smiled at Sirius. If there was anyone whom he loved tormenting, it was his best friend, Sirius. "Ok, I can take a hint" James grinned, putting his feet back onto the floor.  
  
Sirius smiled slightly. "It's nice to be home" he said, as they pulled up to the castle entrance. 


	2. Chapter 2: Sirius the Suave

Chapter 2: Sirius the Suave  
  
The four marauders took their usual seats at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Moments after they were seated, the first years entered the Great Hall, and the sorting began.   
  
"Wonder if she'll be sorted with the first years" snickered Peter.  
  
"hmm, I don't see any 17 year old looking girls up there though…geez, the first years get smaller every year, don't they?" whispered James.   
  
"They'll probably sort her separately" said Sirius.   
  
Sure enough, when the sorting had ended, Dumbledore stood up. "And now, we have one last student to be sorted. She will be in 7th year, and has transferred from Beauxbatons School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which as some of you may know, is in France. So, if Miss Dominique Fiore will please come forward to be sorted".   
  
One of the doors of the Great Hall cracked open and a young girl with black hair, and bronzed skin stepped in. She slowly made her way to the front of the hall, where the sorting hat was perched on a stool.  
  
"shiiit…" whispered Remus.   
  
"Sirius, if she looks like any other French girl, I'm moving to France!" whispered Peter.  
  
"Hey! That's the girl who glared at me!" hissed James.  
  
"She glared at you?" whispered Peter, "When?"  
  
"When I was…" The three boys turned to look at James, "when I was yelling at the first years…ok maybe that's why she glared…" James turned a little pink, feeling quite stupid now.  
  
"She's hot!" said Peter, who turned back to look at the girl, who had now reached the front of the hall.   
  
"no shit, I think we've established that Wormtail! Man, if I wasn't so hung up on Evans…" James trailed off.  
  
"What do you think Padfoot?"  
  
"Clearly he agrees with us…look at how he's staring!"  
  
Sirius's eyes were glued to the figure that sat on the stool, but had snapped back into his senses when he heard his name. "Huh?"  
  
"Sirius fancies her!" Peter said, trying to stifle a laugh.  
  
"Shut up Wormtail, no I don't! I don't even know her!"  
  
"She hasn't got anything" James said, putting his hands on his chest, pretending to hold his imaginary breasts, forcing Remus and Peter to stifle a laugh.  
  
"That back side makes up for it though" Peter sighed, which was followed by the sighs of the others.   
  
"Which house do you think she'll be in?" Remus whispered, "the hat's taking a long time with her."  
  
"Slytherin…she looks dark and mysterious…" said Peter.  
  
"No, she looks smart. I bet she'll be in Ravenclaw" muttered James.  
  
"Five galleons she'll be in Gryffindor." said Sirius in a matter-of-fact voice.   
  
"You're on" whispered James.  
  
Dominique sat nervously on the stool, looking at her feet. There were way too many students at this school. Way too many eyes looking at her.   
  
"so missy, you've got an extra helping of brains, I think I should put you in Ravenclaw" the hat said in her head.  
  
"be my guest, I'm sure those ravenclaws have bird sized brains…" thought Dominique.  
  
"attitude, huh? Well, if you're going to be all haughty about it, perhaps I should put you in Slytherin."  
  
"No wait, I heard that's where that Voldemort guy went. No way am I going to be stuck with a bunch of dark arts loving low lifes!"  
  
"Well then, better be"—"GRYFFINDOR!!!!"  
  
"Aw damn!" said James, pounding the table, as the rest of the room broke into applause, "Here, I'll give you six galleons if you don't gloat!"   
  
"sounds good." Sirius said, getting up.  
  
"Oi mate where are you going? Food's here!"  
  
"I'm coming!" Sirius stood up and whistled at Dominique, waving a hand at her to invite her over.  
  
"Hi…Sirius Black, pleasure to meet you…" Sirius said in the most suave voice he could muster, bowing slightly, and taking her hand to kiss it. "pleasure to meet you."  
  
Dominique looked taken aback for a moment, but then smiled and curtsied slightly, "pleasure's all mine".  
  
Sirius smiled back. For someone who had been living in France her whole life, her English was pretty good, and her accent was pretty light. "Let me introduce you to some of my friends. I believe one of them knows you"—  
  
"REMUS!!"  
  
"D!" Remus had gotten up and ran over to Dominique. "Gosh, I can't believe we're finally seeing each other, all these years!"  
  
"10 years exactly! Oh gosh, wow," Dominique stepped back a little. "You look good! Gosh, it's so weird, keeping in touch with you so long, and finally we get to see each other! Oh, you look exactly like I imagined you'd be!"  
  
"You look stunning yourself, if you don't mind my saying. Gosh, this is great. Ok, come on sit down"—  
  
"yea I already asked her on" Sirius said, a bit annoyed. Sirius was generally not the type to get jealous, but he couldn't help envying Remus for already knowing Dominique and being on such good terms with her. "Here, have my seat" Sirius said.  
  
"thank you…"  
  
Sirius scooted in between Dominique and Peter, and saw James smirking at him.  
  
"So, am I invited to the wedding?" he laughed.  
  
"What's that?" Dominique asked, looking up, "Hey! You're that boy who was yelling at the 1st years!"  
  
James grinned. "And you're the girl who glared at me". Dominique smiled.   
  
"Oi, and over there, that red head, that's Lily Potter, er, I mean Evans…she's in our year and you'll be rooming with her…James here is madly in love with her." Sirius said.   
  
"Am not!" the boys around him looked at him appraisingly. "yea, ok, I am."  
  
Dominique laughed. "You're cute" she said, making James blush.   
  
"Oh, and over here is Peter," said Sirius, nudging Peter in the arm, causing him to drop his fork. "H-H-Hi!" Peter squeaked.  
  
"Hi Peter" Dominique said.  
  
"Hey aren't you forgetting someone?" came a voice from behind them. "Hi, I'm Lily Evans. We're in the same year, so we'll be living together. Us, plus a couple of other girls, I can introduce you to them later. So, you're Dominique, right?" Lily had said all in one breath.  
  
"Yea" Dominique said.  
  
"Cool…so you're from France, huh? That's cool. I've been there before. Beautiful country."  
  
"yea, it is. Glad you liked it."  
  
"Wow, you're English is really good, you hardly even have an accent!" said Lily.  
  
"oh, thanks" laughed Dominique. "well, I learned English when I was really little so I've had enough practice to be able to speak it without the accent." Suddenly Lily frowned.  
  
"Stop staring at me, Potter".  
  
"Isn't he your boyfriend though?" Dominique asked.  
  
"Oh yea, I am!" said James, nodding eagerly, "and she's such a wonder girlfr"—  
  
"No, he is NOT my boyfriend, thank goodness!" Lily said. "I'm going to go and join the other girls. You're welcome to join us, but as you're settled here, I won't mind if you stay here."  
  
"Oh..well, I thought I'd just stay here. Want to catch up with Remus here."  
  
"Oh, you know him?"  
  
"Yea! We actually used to live next door to each other…but I moved away like 10 years ago..so…"  
  
"oh! Say no more! I'll see you in our dormitories then! It was nice to meet you Dominique!"  
  
"You too." With that, Lily strode off back to her seat.  
  
"So," Dominique turned her attention to Remus, "You're prefect, huh? Dumbledore told me"—  
  
"I'm head boy!" James grinned.  
  
"More like Big head boy" muttered Sirius, as he helped himself to baked potatoes.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
The boys and Dominique had just finished eating their dinner, when Lily came back up to the group.   
  
"Hey Lily!" said Dominique.  
  
"Hey! Come over here, I want to introduce you to your new roommates!" Lily said, grabbing Dominique by the arm.  
  
"Ok, I'll just see you guys later. It was nice meeting you all!" Dominique called after the boys.  
  
"Ok, hey guys!" called Lily, waving to a group of girls who had just stood up. "Hey! Guys, this is Dominique…Fiore, is that right?"  
  
"yea" Dominique smiled.  
  
"Dominique, this is Kierra," Lily pointed to a tall girl with brown hair and brown eyes, "and this is Alice," pointing to a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Kierra and Alice said hi together.   
  
"Lily was telling us you already knew Remus?" Kierra asked.  
  
"yea, we grew up together".   
  
Kierra and Alice giggled.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Kierra here has had a crush on Remus since last year"—  
  
"Lily!!"  
  
"What?! Hey, she's gonna be living with us! Might as well"—  
  
Dominique laughed. "Don't worry! I won't say anything to him if that's what you're worried about."  
  
Kierra looked at Dominique, as if to study her, but slowly nodded her head, and smiled back.   
  
"So what's keeping you two from getting together?" Dominique asked, as they walked out of the hall. "He's not seeing anyone is he? He's never mentioned anything to me."  
  
"No, he's not…he's just…well…he's kind of a player.." Lily said.  
  
"What?! Remus?? My Remus?! A player?? You've got to be kidding"—  
  
"No, no I mean…not like that…I mean, a lot of girls like him…and actually most of the time it's the girls asking him out…but he breaks up with girls pretty quickly…seems as if once the relationship gets serious, he just breaks up with them…so, yea, that's why Kierra isn't going out with him. She doesn't want that to happen to her. Oh yea, and also, she doesn't want to be the one asking him out."  
  
"Thanks for explaining to her, mom". Said Kierra, sarcastically.   
  
Dominique laughed again. "Well, I think you're completely in the right. Guys should ask girls out. It shouldn't be the other way around." Dominique turned to Lily. "So what's this thing with James? You don't like him? He seems awfully funny, and cute! And I noticed he kept looking at you the whole dinner!"  
  
"He was? Ugh!" moaned Lily.  
  
"James is a bit too…big headed…for Lily…"  
  
"ooh…yea, he seems a bit egotistical…but otherwise…seems nice…" said Dominique, looking at Lily, who looked as if she's just eaten poison.   
  
"I can't stand him. He hexes people for fun, and picks on everyone! And he's been on my case since 3rd year! Harassing me for so long…" Lily muttered.  
  
"oh well…hey, er, what's that guy's name again, with the long black hair"—  
  
"the one who kissed your hand?" asked Alice, giggling with Kierra. Lily looked at them disapprovingly. Dominique nodded, blushing slightly.  
  
"That," Lily said disdainfully, "was Sirius Black. Best friends with James. Them two, plus Remus and Peter, they're all good friends…inseparable…I'd be careful around them if I were you, Dominique."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"They're absolute trouble makers…always disrupting class…doing stupid jokes…well, of course, Remus isn't like that, he's the good boy of the group."  
  
"They're not that bad!" said Alice, turning to Dominique. "Don't worry, Lily just hates them"—  
  
"I don't HATE them, Alice! They're just…immature!"  
  
"No, just James is.." Alice replied.  
  
"And perhaps Peter.." added Kierra.   
  
"Yea, Sirius isn't…he's pretty…serious!" laughed Alice.  
  
"yea, and he's arrogant and snobby." Lily added.   
  
"Yea, I can see that," Dominique said thoughtfully, "Awfully cute though…"  
  
"sure is…but still, doesn't stop him from being an overconfident, haughty little…prick…" Lily said.   
  
"Oh, he isn't that bad!" Kierra exclaimed, "Lily's just jealous that Sirius doesn't have to study to get good grades"—  
  
"That's not true!" Lily snapped. "I just don't like him because he's arrogant. He thinks he's too good for everyone. You know, he hasn't gone out with anyone in like, ages. You know why? Because he doesn't think any of the girls here are good enough for him."  
  
"Is that so?" asked Dominique.  
  
Lily nodded. "So, now that you're here, I expect he probably already thinks he owns you or something, the snot".  
  
"well then," Dominique said, grinning, "I suppose I shall have to fix that presumption".  
  
"Well, am I best man or what, Sirius?" laughed James, as he plopped onto a chair by the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.   
  
"Oh shut it Prongs…" muttered Sirius.  
  
"Oi, Padfoot, you were smooth out there!" James continued, getting up. "Pleasure to meet you Remus, baby", James chuckled, taking Remus' hand and pretending to kiss it, sending Peter and Remus into hysterics. "Oww!" Sirius had chucked his potions book at James' head. Yet getting hit in the head didn't seem to have much of an effect on James, since he kept laughing. "real smooth Padfoot! Absolutely suaaaave!"   
  
"I thought it was pretty cute when he did that" came a voice behind them. Dominique, Lily, Kierra and Alice had just come out of the portrait hole and had seen everything, and they were all biting their lips to keep from laughing.   
  
The four boys turned around quickly, not noticing the girls coming in. "Oi, hello ladies!" said James, hopping of the couch, and walking over to Lily.   
  
James took Lily's hand, to mock Sirius, and bent to kiss it, "You look lovely—Oww!" Lily had snatched her hand out of his grip, smacking him across the face in the process.  
  
"I'm going to bed" Lily said to the girls. "Good night Kierra, Dominique, Alice…Alice?" Lily turned around to see where Alice had gone off to.  
  
"She's a bit occupied right now, Evans. We'll give her your salutations when she's free" Sirius said, pointing over to the corner of the common room, where Alice sat with a boy with light brown hair.   
  
"Who's that?" Dominique asked Kierra.  
  
"Frank Longbottom…they've been going out since like…fourth year…always together…prefers his company to ours I think…" Kierra smiled at the couple.  
  
"That's so cute!" Dominique saw through the corner of her eye that Sirius was staring at her. Just as he was about to open his mouth to respond, Dominique cut him short, "Well, I'm off to bed too I think. Night guys! It was nice to meet you all!" With that, Dominique ran up the stairs to catch up with Lily, leaving Kierra by herself with the boys.   
  
Kierra looked back at the marauders, who sat comfortably in a set of couches that she and her friends often sat in.   
  
"Hey Nakofsky!" Kierra turned around. It was Potter.  
  
"Yea?"  
  
"Come here!" Kierra went over to join the boys, and nervously sat down in the only empty seat, right next to Remus.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"So, what classes are you taking?"  
  
"We don't get our schedules until tomorrow."  
  
"Yea…but"—  
  
"Don't beat around the bush, Potter. Did you want to ask me what classes Lily signed up for?" James eagerly nodded. Kierra rolled her eyes in response, causing the other boys to snicker.  
  
"Well, I think she's continuing with most of her classes…potions, Defense against the dark arts, transfiguration, umm…what?" Kierra turned to Remus, who was hiding a smile behind his book.   
  
"Nothing…"  
  
"No, what?"  
  
"You think Lily would be happy in knowing you're giving her schedule away to…well…James?"  
  
"Hey! Remus! What're you doing to me, mate?!" whined James.  
  
"Of course she wouldn't be happy," replied Kierra, "but I'm not telling her unless she asks. Are you going to tell her?"  
  
"No, of course not"—  
  
"well then…ok so what else? Oh, I think she's taking muggle studies…yea I know" Kierra said, when Remus raised his eyebrows appraisingly.  
  
"Um.."  
  
"Ancient Runes? I'm taking that! Tell me she's taking ancient runes!" James asked hopefully.  
  
"No, she got sick of that. I'm taking it though!"  
  
"Oh big woop!" James said sarcastically.  
  
"Fine then"—and Kierra got up to leave, only to be pulled back down by James.  
  
"Sorry about that. Seriously, I'm very glad we're in the same class together"—  
  
"yea, so he'll have someone he can steal notes from"—  
  
"oh shut it Sirius!" James said, turning back to Kierra, "well, what else?" he asked sweetly.  
  
"um…oh, she's continuing herbology…I think…"  
  
"what about divination?"  
  
"gave that up, taking arithmancy instead"  
  
"Ugh! Am I the only idiot who signed up for that class?" groaned James.  
  
"No, you're not the only one…" answered Peter.  
  
"Man, I feel bad for Peter, he's probably going to have the worst schedule! Signed up for the worst classes…"  
  
"What other horrible classes are you taking, besides divination?" asked Kierra.  
  
"history of magic"—  
  
"that's not horrible! I'm taking that class too, I'm looking forward to it"--  
  
"It's so dreadfully boring, and completely useless. Besides, everyone takes that class just to get an easy A"-- said Remus, not looking up from his book.  
  
"Just because it's not to your taste, doesn't mean it's useless" Kierra snapped, getting up. Her crush on Remus was beginning to wear away. As she stalked away upstairs, she heard James letting out a low whistle.  
  
"Think you hit a nerve, Moony"  
  
There was no answer from "Moony". Kierra imagined that he had probably shrugged it off. Moony. Who calls their friends Moony? Kierra thought to herself.   
  
Kierra opened the door to her dormitory, and found her three roommates sitting on her bed.   
  
"You should really reconsider, Dominique. There are plenty of other guys around here"-- Kierra heard Lily's voice say.  
  
"Oh, don't listen to her. I say, if you like him, and clearly he likes you, you should go for it, and see what happens" came Alice's voice.  
  
"I agree with Alice" Kierra said, shutting the door behind her.  
  
"Kierra, what were you doing down there so long?" Alice said, "I came up here ages before you. I saw you talking to the boys. And you were sitting next to Reeeemus" she giggled. "Did he say anything to you?"   
  
Kierra shrugged, remembering she was mad at him. "Nothing of any importance".   
  
"What'd they want from you?" asked Lily.  
  
"Er..."  
  
By then, Alice's amused expression had disappeared, and she too began to look at Kierra with curiousity, along with Dominique.  
  
"James...wanted to know...what classes you were taking" she said, avoiding Lily's eyes.  
  
Lily laughed. "Oh gosh, the prat...well, what'd you tell him?"  
  
"uhh..."  
  
Lily's expresion changed from relaxed to fear. "Oh gosh, Kierra, you didn't!!"  
  
"Lily!!!"   
  
"OH MY GOSH!"  
  
"Lily calm down!! It's no biggie!"  
  
"Yes it is!" Lily began pacing around the room. "ugh, he knows my classes now!"  
  
"Lily, you are totally overreacting!! Think about it! By tomorrow, well day after tomorrow, after we've had all our classes, he'd know anyway!"  
  
"Well, now you've given him something to look forward to!"  
  
"Lily!" Kierra laughed. "Are you saying her doesn't deserve happiness?"  
  
"No! I didn't mean that...I meant...well..." Lily stammered.  
  
Dominique laughed. "If I didn't know better, I would say that you like Mr. Potter!"  
  
Lily turned on Dominique. "Are you kidding me?? That sorry excuse for a human being"--  
  
"Lily...you're acting like a typical girl!! Going on and on, bashing away at the guy you like...acting as if you don't like him.." Dominique smirked.  
  
"I'm not acting! I don't like him! Period!!" Lily was now as red as her hair.  
  
"Well, there's some truth in Lily's hate, I think," Alice said, getting up, "but...Dominique brings up an interesting point...girls do that you know...Lily..." she smiled, "I think you like him, on some level..."   
  
"Maybe if he wasn't such a prat, I would" Lily answered.   
  
"I think you guys would be cute together" Dominique said.  
  
"Oh my gosh! I told her the same thing last year, and she almost killed me!" said Kierra.  
  
"Well, if you guys are gonna keep arguing, go down to the common room and do it. I'm tired" Alice said, climbing into her own bed. "good night"  
  
"Night" the three other girls said in unison.  
  
"yea I think I'm gonna hit the sack too" Lily said, as Alice drew the curtains of her four poster bed around her.   
  
Kierra and Dominique looked at each other and shrugged, and decided they should head to bed as well. "see you in the morning" Kierra said, as she drew her curtains shut.  
  
The Marauders sat in their chairs in the Gryffindor common room, gobbling up chocolate frogs and bertie botts every flavor beans. "Wonder what classes Dominique's signed up for...should've asked her" Remus said, finally putting his book down.   
  
"No offense Moony, but I don't really like her. I'm sorry.." said James. "I mean, she's good looking and all, but I don't see anything else. What do you see in her Padfoot?"  
  
"sorry, you say something?" asked Sirius, looking quite lost in his own thoughts moments ago.   
  
"oh nevermind." muttered James, turning back to Remus. "She's too...I dunno...full of herself.."  
  
Remus rolled his eyes. "She's really quite nice. You just have to get to know her"--  
  
"yea, we'll see about that" muttered James, getting up. "well, I'm gonna hit the sack. Wanna be fresh and ready for my first class tomorrow, it might be with Evans!" and with that, James headed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory, with Peter at his heels. "Wait for me, Prongs, I think I'm gonna go to sleep too!"  
  
Sirius stared out the window, watching the leaves wrustle on the whomping willow, but his solitude was interrupted by Remus.  
  
"So, taken a fancy to Dominique, eh?"  
  
Sirius shifted his gaze towards his friend, and looked him in the eyes. For some reason, though Sirius couldn't put his finger on it, he saw something in Remus' eyes when he asked that. Was he pleased that he liked Remus' friend? Amused? Worried?  
  
"yea, I think have...you o.k. with that?" Sirius asked.  
  
"yea of course! She's not mine you know" Remus smiled.   
  
"yes..well...she is your friend, so...well, as long as you're ok with it." Sirius looked at his watch. "hey I think I'm going to head to bed myself. You coming?"  
  
"yea, in a bit..I want to finish reading these last couple chapters first. So I'll see you in the morning, I guess."  
  
"ok, well, goodnight Moony"  
  
"Night Padfoot" said Remus, as his friend retreated up the stairs.  
  
Kierra tiptoed quietly down the stairs. She would just grab her book and go. Hopefully there wouldn't be anyone left in the common room to ask her questions. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that there was only one person left in the common room, and of all people for her to be alone with: Remus Lupin.   
  
Remus looked up when he heard her come down and put his book down. "Kierra"--  
  
"Remus...er, sorry, I just..uh, came for my book...er, was that my book you were reading?" she asked, pointing at the thick hardcover that lay on the table in front of Remus.  
  
"Oh, yea, sorry, didn't know it was yours, uh, here"--  
  
"No, no, its ok, you can read it...hell, keep it..I'll get another copy.." Kierra said quickly, turning around to go back up the stairs before Remus could see her blush.  
  
"Kierra, wait!" Remus hurtled over the couch and ran up to her, taking her hands. Kierra looked at him, praying he couldn't hear her heart pounding.  
  
"Remus..?"  
  
"I was actually hoping you'd come down here..."  
  
"me..?"  
  
"yea.."  
  
"why..."  
  
"Something I've been wanting to do for a while"--  
  
"what..." but Kierra's throat tightened as she felt Remus' hands go to her hips, pulling her closer to him. She struggled to keep her eyes open to take in the experience, but they fluttered shut in defeat, as Remus pressed his lips on hers.  
  
Just as Remus began to pry open her mouth with his tongue, Kierra's eyes snapped open. She sat up and leaned against the headboard of her bed. 'Always happens...just when it gets good...' she thought, rubbing her eyes. She looked at the watch that lay on her nightstand. 1 o'clock a.m. Kierra yawned and pulled her curtains open halfway to observe the room. It was quite still. Alice lay sprawled on her bed as she usually did when she slept; arms in legs going in every which direction, which was also how Kierra also slept. Kierra looked over at Lily, who slept "perfectly and prim" as Alice would say; on one side, her whole body straight, smiling slightly as she slept. 'maybe she's dreaming of James...' Kierra thought, smiling. She shifted her gaze towards her new roommate, Dominique, who, to Kierra's relief, slept as quietly as the rest of them. Dominique was curled up into a tiny ball, her arms covering her face as she slept. It reminded Kierra of the fetus position that unborn babies took when residing in the mother's womb. Though Kierra could not trace back any of her prior knowledge about sleeping patterns, or biology, or psychology, from when she was in muggle schools, she couldn't help but wonder if sleeping like that indicated some sort of abnormality or problem. That was Lily's field. Kierra made a mental note to ask her about it sometime. Until then, Kierra would need to catch up with her sleep, and hopefully with her dreams. As she lay back in her bed, Kierra thought about the dream she had just had. 'I need to get over him' she thought, 'Otherwise, I'm in for a long school year...' 


	3. Chapter 3: Mounting Tension

Chapter 3: Mounting Tension

Just as Kierra's head hit the pillows and her eyes shut, she could feel someone tugging at her arm.

"Wake up, Kierra, wake up!" it was Lily. Kierra let out a groan and pulled her covers over her head. "go away!"

"Kierra Nakofky, get up this instant! We have class in half an hour!" Lily shouted, yanking the covers off of Kierra.

"Lilyyyyyyy!" Kierra whined, curling up into a ball to warm herself up.

"Honestly Lily, you know there's only one way to get her up," Alice said, coming from the bathroom with a glass of water, and tiptoeing close to Kierra. Without warning, Alice splashed the water at Kierra's head.

"AAH! DAMNIT GUYS!" Kierra had shot up out of her bed so fast that she rolled onto the floor. "OOf!" Kierra glared at the girls, who were laughing at her as she got up and rubbed her behind.

"yea, yea…very funny.." Kierra muttered as she went to the bathroom.

"I'm sorry dear, but I'm sure you wouldn't want to be late for your first class on the first day of school!" Lily said perkily.

"Hurry up Kierra, I want to go for breakfast!" Alice whined.

"You guys can go without me! I'll join you in a few minutes!" Kierra called from the bathroom.

"ok, we'll see you then!" the girls shouted as they left the dormitory.

Five minutes later, Kierra sprinted down the steps, through the Gryffindor common room and out the portrait hole. By the time she got down to the Great Hall, it was so crowded, that she had trouble finding her friends. At long last though, she found Dominique, Alice and Lily, sitting only a few seats away from the boys.

"Oi, Kierra, over here!" Alice shouted. Kierra quickly went over to join her friends and took a seat across from Dominique. "Did you guys get your schedules yet?" Kierra asked.

"Yep" Lily answered, handing Kierra a roll of parchment, "and Professor McGonagall left a copy of yours".

"Oh cool, thanks" Kierra answered, unrolling her parchment, as Alice and Dominique leaned over to see what classes Kierra had.

"ooh cool, so we've all got potions together, and transfiguration, charms, defense against the dark arts…but that's it…Lily's the only one taking muggle studies, and while she's in that the rest of us will be in history of magic…er…" Alice glanced back at her own schedule, "and while Lily and I are gonna be in arithmancy, you and Dominique will be in Ancient Runes…"

"well, if we don't hurry, we'll be late for potions" Lily said, grabbing her books and sticking them in her bag. The rest of the girls followed suite, and soon were stalking down to the dungeons for Potions with professor Keifer.

"God, I hate this class…" Kierra muttered as she saw professor Keifer walk in. He was a giant man, both in height and width, with thick framed glasses, and graying hair, coming not only out of his head, but from his ears and nostrils.

"Ugh, someone should get him a pair of tweezers for Christmas or something.." Alice whispered to the girls, making them giggle.

"Welcome back to another year of potions everyone," Professor Keifer turned to face the class, "ah, and I see we have a new student here, stand up please" he said, pointing a finger at Dominique.

Dominique raised an eyebrow at him, but did as she was told.

"What's your name?"

"Dominique Fiore."

"And, you are from Beauxbatons, am I right?" Dominique nodded.

"Very well. Sit down." Dominique took her seat as Professor Keifer turned to face the blackboard. "We shall see in time how well the professors there train their students".

Dominique turned to Kierra, who sat at the double desk with her, and exchanged annoyed, confused glances. Lily, who sat on Dominique's other side, gave a shrug and pulled out her quill, copying down the notes that Professor Keifer put on the board.

"Today we'll be making the placating potion. It soothes the pain of almost any indigestion problems. Of course if you mess it up, well…that's another story. Before you all start," he said, seeing the students taking out their cauldrons, "I think I will be assigning you your partners for the year, just to avoid some….problems…we've had in the past," casting a look of abhorrence at Kierra.

"Well, let's see…Alice and Frank, you two can keep working together, you've never caused any problems…Dominique, our new fledgling…why don't you partner up with Miss Bellatrix Black over here? One of our best students!" he said pointing to a pretty girl with curly black hair.

"Black?" Dominique said quietly, looking over at Sirius questioningly. Sirius in return, only glared at Bellatrix, who was smirking.

"Move along now, Miss Fiore…let's see, who else…Mr. Potter, go and sit with Mr. Snape"—

"I thought you said you want to avoid having problems" Kierra said, causing several of the students in the class to laugh.

Professor Keifer stepped towards Kierra. "I don't recall ever asking your opinion, Miss Kierra. I think I'll put you with Mr. Pettigrew…you're about the same level…goodness knows, maybe he'll be able to help you out!" he snapped. Kierra stiffened at this, but quickly grabbed her things and took her seat next to Peter, who looked at her timidly.

"Ah, Miss Evans, why don't you work with Mr. Lupin? And Mr. Black…you sit with Mr. Malfoy."

Sirius rolled his eyes and gave a look of disgust at Professor Keifer before getting up to sit with Malfoy.

The next half hour passed by with little incident. Sirius had gritted his teeth and worked silently with Lucius Malfoy without hexing him, as did James with Snape. Across the room however, Dominique was being interrogating by Bellatrix.

"So I've heard you've taken a fancy to my dear cousin, have you?"

"Sirius is your cousin then?" Dominique asked, as she stirred the bubbling contents in her cauldron.

"yes, he is. Disgrace to the family, but all the same. You like him?"

"A little. Why? Why's he a disgrace to your family, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh he's just a good for nothing. He ran away from home, you know."

"Seiously?"

Bellatrix nodded. "yes, he ran away at the beginning of this summer, because he hated his parents so much. Can't understand why, they're the dearest people in the world if you ask me, especially his mother. They've given him so much…and he just turned up his nose at them…ungrateful if you ask me…So, he ran away, and stayed with that Potter boy. You know him?"

"A little. Well, that was nice of him to take Sirius in, I guess…but…" Dominique's voice trailed off. She didn't know what to think of him. Running away from home, from his parents? Either Sirius was a disrespectful, no good, scoundrel, or perhaps, they had quite a bit in common.

"Oh no!" came a voice from another end of the room. Kierra had jumped back. The cauldron was overflowing with bright green liquid. Suddenly it made cracking noises. "What happened?" Peter asked, as he came back to the table with more ingredients.

"Get down!" shouted Professor Keifer. Everyone ducked underneath their tables just in time to avoid getting hit by the explosion of green goop.

"Miss Nakofky!" bellowed Professor Keifer, stalking over to her table. "Can you not do anything right? Clean up this mess at once! GO!" Kierra backed away, timidly and reached for her wand.

"Without magic" said Professor Keifer, as he walked away he muttered, "How the hell did that idiot get enough NEWTs to get into this class?"

Kierra dropped her wand at hearing this, but quickly regained her composure when she realized the whole class was watching her. She knelt down to pick her wand back up and took a second to wipe the tears in her eyes, hoping no one would see.

"Well, seeing as the entire working environment has been spoiled by your classmate, you all are dismissed early. And Miss Nakofsky, you'll be dismissed when you get this mess cleaned up." With that, the students filed out of the room, with the exception of Lily, Alice, Dominique, and Peter.

"All of you, out, now!" Professor Keifer said. The girls and Peter quickly left the room, followed by Professor Keifer.

As the heavy door slammed shut, Kierra threw her damp towel on the floor and stomped on it. "Stupid asshole!" she said out loud as she let the tears go down her face freely. Just then, the door opened again. It was Peter.

"Peter! I"—

"Sorry, uh, want me to help you clean this up?"

Kierra blinked stupidly. "Er…yea, ok..thanks.."

"Sorry, this is my fault too…shouldn't have left you by yourself"—

"no it's not your fault," Kierra said, wetting another towel, "I'm just very accident prone when it comes to potions…wait, what the hell am I doing?" Kierra pulled out her wand.

"But I thought he said"—

"yea well, he won't be coming in anytime soon…scourgify!" and the room was sparkling clean. "Come on, let's go to history of magic..." Kierra said, as she grabbed her bag.

"Hurry up Padfoot!" James shouted at Sirius, who was lagging behind him several feet. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" drawled Sirius, who purposely seemed to be taking his sweet time.

"Oi, there she is!" James whispered eagerly as they entered the classroom.

Lily sat at her desk in Muggle studies, and was chatting with Frank Longbottom.

"I know I'm muggle born and all…but I thought it would be interesting to learn about it from a magical perspective, you know?"

"Well, I HAVE to take it," muttered Frank, "Alice is sick and tired of explaining things to me about muggle life, so she made me sign up for it…hey! James! Sirius! What are you doing here?" Lily snapped her head in the direction of the door. "yea, what ARE you doing in here?"

"Oh, I just transferred in here, asked McGonagall. And Sirius wanted to take it too"—

"No I didn't…I just took it because the poor bloke begged me to." Sirius said as he took a seat behind Frank.

"Sirius! You promised you wouldn't say anything!" whined James.

"Oh geez.." muttered Lily to Frank, "this is going to be a long year"..

James, who took a seat behind Lily, grinned at hearing this. "I'm loving this first day of school, Sirius."

"Lily, wait for me!" James shouted as he ran out of the classroom.

"Bug off Potter! I can't believe you got me into trouble on the first day of school!" Lily shouted as she headed up the stairs.

"I'm…sorry! I didn't…mean to!" James said, panting, as he struggled to keep up with the furious Lily. Just as Lily reached the entrance of their next class, Lily turned to face James.

"Why can't you just leave me alone! What do I have to do to get that point across to you! Ugh!" Lily turned back around and went straight to the empty desk by Kierra.

"This should be interesting" muttered Remus, who sat in front of Kierra.

"What happened?"

"Yea I wanna know too!" Alice said, coming into the classroom with Dominique. "We could hear you all the way down the hall!"

Lily cast a glare at James, who sat behind her, looking at her meekly. "Oh, nothing. It's just that Potter over here thought he'd pass me notes in class. Professor Maynard caught me with the note."

"That's not that horrible!" Dominique said. "I've had worse. I had a professor who took the note and read it out loud in class…I just wanted to die..."

"That's exactly what she did" Lily said glumly. "She read the note to the class."

"Ooh…coming from Potter too? This can't be good…what'd he write?" asked Kierra.

"Dearest Lily: I love you most ardently. Will you please relieve me of my suffering and consent to be my girlfriend?" Lily said, in a mock voice of Professor Maynard.

"aww!" Kierra, Alice, and Dominique said together.

"How could you get angry over that?" asked Kierra, "that's too cute!"

"Isn't it?" James asked hopefully.

"Stay out of this, Potter!" snapped Lily.

Just then, Professor Larson, the defense against the dark arts professor, entered the room, forcing everyone to return to their respective seats. "Alright everyone, welcome back, welcome back…and a welcome to Hogwarts for you, Miss Fiore" he said, turning to smile at Dominique, who nodded in acknowledgement and smiled back.

"Oi Padfoot, take a picture, it'll last much longer" James whispered to his friend when he saw how Sirius was staring at Dominique.

"Well, by now, you should all be fairly comfortable with theory, so this year our main focus will be practical uses of the magic you've learned all these years…and a lot of what we'll be doing this year is dueling technique…so, I'd like to do a little diagnostic test on you all on dueling…just to see how much you remember, hopefully you all won't be too behind. So…let's see, let me pair you all up…" Professor Larson reached for his roster list. "Ah, ok, James and Lily, our head boy and girl! Why don't you two partner up? (Lily groans, James looks at Sirius excitedly, who rolls his eyes in return) uhh…India, you partner up with Lauren….Dominique, partner up with Sirius Black, Nick with Lisa, Gary with Welma…umm…Peter, work with Alice, Kierra, work with Remus, Caroline and Frank. Well, that's all of you! Alright, I want to see two lines, hurry up now! Spit spot! And no lethally dangerous spells, understand!"

"Oww! Evans! Professor Larson said nothing lethal!" James cried, rubbing his behind.

"It's not my fault you've got a low threshold for pain" Lily said casually.

"Look," James said, screwing up his face, trying to think of a spell, "I'm sorry, o.k? I didn't mean for you to get in trouble! And you didn't even get into trouble! She just read the note out loud! And everyone knows I like you anyway, so who cares"—

"I CARE! URGH!"

"Rigda Sampra" James shot at her, throwing her into a fit of giggles. "Hmph," James smiled at his handy work, "you could use a little lightening up you know." James laughed.

"Undo…this…now!" Lily shouted between laughs.

"Nah, I don't think so Evans…you look even prettier when you laugh…"

Moments later, Lily was finally able to remember the counter curse. Right when she did that, she pointed her wand at James. "Expellaramus"- James' wand flew out of his hand and landed in Lily's.

"Looks like I've won this duel!" Lily said, turning to leave.

"Haven't won the war though…" James muttered under his breath.

"Oh, well done Miss Evans! Finished the duel in record time, I'd say! You can sit down then and just watch the others then if you'd like." James heard Professor Larson say.

James went over and picked up his wand that Lily had dropped on the floor when she finished, and turned around to watch Sirius and Dominique duel.

"Rigda sampra!" Sirius said, smiling, but Dominique had ducked it and missed the spell by a few centimeters.

'maybe I'll help Padfoot out a little,' James thought, racking his brains for a good hex to put on Dominique. 'ah ha…perfect…' "Tarantella!" James shouted. But Dominique had seemed to know that James would hex her, and she ducked his spell as well, causing James to accidentally hit Sirius with the hex instead. Immediately, Sirius' legs began to dance involuntarily to a faced paced, non-existent rhythm.

Dominique turned around and smiled at James. "Next time, don't do your curses in front of a mirror, if you don't want your opponent to see you sneak up on them." She said, turning back to Sirius to do the counter curse.

"don't do your curses in front of a mirror…" James muttered in a high pitched voice, mocking Dominique, as he stalked away.

"Ah, thank you Dominique," Sirius said, now standing quite normally, "now…wingardium leviosa!" he said to Dominique, and immediately she began to levitate in the air.

"Now is that anyway to repay me?" Dominique asked, laughing as she rose a few inches into the air.

"Mmm…you're absolutely right…I can think of a few other ways to repay you…" Sirius said, pulling Dominique closer to him with his wand.

"Sirius!"

"What? I was thinking of saying thank you!" Sirius said exasperated.

"Oh…"

"Oh…did you have something else in mind?" Sirius asked, grinning slyly, "I'm all ears."

"no, no…a thank you will suffice…and you're quite welcome" Dominique said, who now floated only a foot away from Sirius. "Hey I've got a question for you.." she said, remembering her talk with Bellatrix in Potions.

"Shoot"

"Well, I was working with Bellatrix…Lestrange…I think that's her name…anyway, in potions…and uh, she told me you're cousins?"

"yea, so?" Sirius said, staring at Dominique, determined not to lose focus on levitating her.

"ok…well, she also said you ran away from home, is that true? And why—ouch!" Sirius accidentally blinked in surprise at what she said, thus losing his concentration and dropped her.

"Oh shoot! I'm sorry"—Sirius quickly knelt down and pulled Dominique back onto her feet. "so sorry"—

"no, no..it's ok…I take it then, that she was telling the truth?"

Sirius looked away from Dominique for a moment, looking a bit annoyed, but looked back at her, and said, "yes, it's true. I ran away from home at the beginning of this summer. Stayed with James' family."

"But why did you"—

"nevermind that…" and with that Sirius stalked out of the classroom.

"Mr. Black! Where do you think you're going! Mr. Black!" Professor Larson called after him. "Well! 10 points from Gryffindor then!" he huffed.

"Oh no!" Kierra moaned. Remus had just put a leg locking curse on her, forcing her legs to stick together.

"Come on Kierra, you're not trying hard enough! You're practically letting me beat you"—

"I'm not letting you!" Kierra said, as she struggled to keep herself balanced, "I'm just that bad!"

"No you're not…here…" Remus undid his curse. "Ok, let's just start again. Just stay on your heels and keep your wits about you…it's the only way to win a duel… Stay alert and be ready...alright?" Remus asked her, as he stepped back into his starting position.

"Ready."

"Aloha corpus!" Lupin said, but Kierra ducked him. "There you go"—

"Petrifucus totallus!" Kierra shouted, hitting Lupin. However, the spell didn't go as Kierra supposed it would. Instead of making Remus go stiff and fall to the ground, ice began to form around Remus' legs, and slowly spread upwards.

"Uh…I think it's supposed to be 'toe-TAL-lus…not TOE-tu-lus…" Remus muttered.

'I am such an idiot…' Kierra thought to herself as Professor Larson rushed up to the two. "Oh my, Mr. Lupin! Miss Nakofsky, what did you do?"

"I think I pronounced the spell wrong, I'm sorry!" Kierra was ready to cry.

"Let's hurry now, get you up to the hospital wing Mr. Lupin, off we go now, come on…" and with that, Mr. Larson levitated Lupin into the air and took him to the hospital wing. Just as he left the classroom, he shouted at everyone, "Class dismissed!"

"Hey, way to go Kierra, you got us dismissed early twice in one day! That even beats my record!" he said, clapping a hand on her shoulder in congratulations. "Oi Padfoot, maybe we should induct her"—he, Sirius and Peter began to laugh.

Kierra just stood there in the classroom, feeling quite stupid now.

"Hey, you o.k.?" someone asked, from behind her. It was Dominique, who was standing with Lily and Alice.

"Gosh, I'm such an idiot! Totallus…totallus…geez, how stupid am I that I can't even get a simple spell right?"

"Kierra, don't beat yourself up over it! You just mispronounced it a little! Anyone could've done that!" Alice said, putting an arm around her.

"yea, well I did it! No one else did…just me…" Kierra muttered, "why do I get so nervous around him…if only I was dueling someone else…"

"Well there you have it!" Lily announced, making the other girls jump. "You're perfectly capable of doing these spells…you were just nervous dueling with him! I'd be nervous too if I was dueling with someone I liked!"

"You weren't nervous with James though"—Kierra said, smiling a little.

"BUT I DON'T LIKE HIM!" yelled Lily, "ARGH!" she groaned, and stormed out of the room, causing the remaining three girls to giggle.

Kierra slowly snuck out of the kitchen, waving gratefully to the house elves. She climbed up the steps, humming to herself. Thank goodness for James Potterand his extensive knowledge of the grounds of Hogwarts. He had taken her to the kitchens once during their fourth year. They had just gotten back from Hogsmeade, Kierra from her first date. She remembered it had gone horribly, and her date, Ravenclaw Jack Miller, had dumped her only an hour into the date. She had been crying into the night in the common room, and James had caught her. She smiled warmly at the memory of James taking her hand and leading her out of the common room, telling her a bit of maraudering would make her feel better. He had taken her to the kitchen and requested one of the house elves to prepare a midnight feast for the 'damsel in distress'...

Kierra carefully switched the basket she was carrying into her other arm, to shift the weight, wondering why she never took to fancying James. He was a good guy...and he knew how to have fun...Remus on the other hand, seemed too serious most of the time to know what the word 'fun' meant. And yet, here she was, smitten with him, and on her way to visit him int he hospital wing...

'Ok…just say sorry…offer him some food, and make a little small talk…' Kierra thought to herself.

Just as she was about to enter the hospital wing, Kierra stopped short at the sound of voices.

"So he'll be out soon?" she heard James ask.

"Yes, of course! Soon as we get him thawed out a bit more, and he'll be fine!" she heard Madam Pomfrey say, "We're nearly done, just need to undo the ice around the feet and he'll be set."

"Say, how far did the ice get up to?" she heard Peter ask.

"ugh.." Remus muttered, "too far up…"

"did it freeze"—

"yes Peter, it froze my special spot!" Remus said, irritated, sending James, Sirius and Peter into hysterics. "What? It's not like I can't use it or something…I went to the bathroom a few minutes ago..." causing the boys to laugh even more.

'boys' thought Kierra. She was about to push the door open, when she heard her name.

"You should've seen Kierra, she seemed quite upset when she hit you with that curse." James said.

"yea, I'd be upset too if I had messed up such a simple curse" Remus said grumpily.

"she looks good when she's upset…" Peter said. The guys chuckled while Kierra cringed.

"Peter, don't you forget that you're dating Veronica." Sirius said, in a matter-of-fact tone. "And I do wonder sometimes how Kierra managed to get in advanced defense..."

"She's not that terrible...she was probably nervous.." James offered. "...I'll bet she likes you...why don't you ask her out? She's pretty good looking"

"And how did you jump to that conclusion?" Remus asked casually. "Was it the way she sent me right up here to the hospital wing?"

James laughed. "I don't think she meant to...I read somewhere that girls get nervous when they like a guy...so maybe that's why she messed up..."

Remus shrugged. "I'm not interested...I'd probably get myself killed on the first date anyway..." Remus said, causing the boys to laugh again. "Though I'm very curious to know what titles you've been reading lately...Witch Weekly again?"

James scowled. "I told you guys, I wasn't reading it! I just found it laying around in the common room one day!"

"And then you picked it up and read through it..." Peter said.

"I wasn't reading it..." James muttered. "I was just...leafing through it..."

Kierra slowly backed away from the door, and turned to walk away. She struggled to walk down the stairs without tripping, as her legs had gone numb and her vision was blurred with tears. At long last, she had reached the common room. She saw Dominique sitting with a book in a corner, so she quickened her pace up the stairs to avoid her. As she got herself back into the dormitories, she sighed with relief when she saw no one was there. She plopped herself on her bed and began to cry freely.

Just then, the door opened, and Dominique appeared at the entrance. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing.." Kierra sobbed.

"Bad day, for you, huh?" Kierra nodded into her pillow.

"I went to go see Remus…to bring him some desserts…and say sorry.." Kierra sobbed.

"oh, well that was nice of you! I bet he appreciated it"—

"I never saw him…"

"what happened?"

"I overheard him, talking to the other boys…" Kierra sniffed, "Peter, and Sirius..and James…he noticed that I was upset about cursing him…and Remus said that he'd be upset too if he had messed up such a simple curse"—

"he did not say that…Remus…oh gosh, what an idiot…" Dominique muttered.

"and then, James also said he thought that I liked Remus, so he should ask me out…but Remus was like, I'd get myself killed on the first date..and they all laughed…And…I think Peter likes me…" Kierra sobbed.

"Oohh, that sucks…but Remus…that was mean…that was mean…" Dominique sighed, "that's not like him though..he's not mean like that…he's never been like that…unless…" Dominique thought for a moment, "um…Kierra, maybe it was just…well you know, guys can get cranky sometimes…"

"are you suggesting that he has PMS?" Kierra asked angrily.

"no, no! well, sorta…some guys do get it..well something similar…once a month…" but Dominique stopped, she couldn't disclose any more information to Kierra without Remus' consent. "well," she continued, "no matter, he shouldn't have said that about you. I think I'll have a talk with him"—

"no!" shouted Kierra, pulling Dominique back down when she stood up, "you can't say anything! I don't him to know that I heard…"

"ok, if you like…" Dominique sighed and got up again, and squeezed Kierra's hand comfortingly. "Hang in there. I know how you feel."

"You know how it feels? I'm not sure, Sirius seems to like you pretty well, Dominique." Kierra said bitterly.

Dominique was now at the door and had just opened it. "I wasn't talking about Sirius. I was talking about my parents." With that, Dominique shut the door behind her.


	4. Chapter 4: Unrequited

Chapter 4: Unrequited

Sirius stood alone in the courtyard of the castle, staring past the castle walls, over at the mountains that lay a few miles away. Just then, he noticed a shadow appear on the grass in front of him, next to his own shadow.

"Dominique…"he said, without turning around.

"Wow, you already know my shadow? Should I be flattered or scared?" Dominique said, laughing lightly. When she saw that his countenance did not change, she cleared her throat and stepped up next to him. "Sirius…look, I'm sorry I asked about"—

"I told you, don't worry about it" he said, not looking at her.

"How can I not, when I see that it bothers you so much? If it helps, well, I can hardly see that it would help, but so you know, I hated my parents."

"Nah, I don't think that helps."

"Well, I mean, we're on the same boat though, I think."

"Yea we are. But we probably hated our parents for different reasons. What's your excuse?"

Dominique sighed deeply. "They didn't care about me. Or love me…they just loved each other…they'd spoil me, but it was just because they wanted me to keep busy with other stuff and stay out of their way…So, I hardly felt any remorse when they died…they were hardly even my parents…Remus' parents were more like parents to me…that is, when they lived by us.."

"oh…so you've got that whole negligence thing….man, I wish I had that…"

"Why did you hate your parents?"

"Well, my family…for several generations, has been a bunch of pureblood fanatics…and they've got too much family pride…think that being a Black makes you royalty or something…I couldn't stand it…especially since I've got halfblood friends."

"So you ran away from them because of that?"

"yea…couldn't stand hearing them talk about that stuff all the time…plus my younger brother, they love him, because he's keeping up the family tradition by hating so called mudbloods…"

"Does he go here?"

"yea, Regalus…in 5th year…my cousin's also in the 5th year, Narcissa, whose sister is Bellatrix…and of course you've met her…"

"wow…and they're all…like your parents?"

"yep…"

Dominique stared awkwardly at Sirius, feeling a bit sorry that she had brought this up with him again. "Lovely weather…"

"Oh yes, quite.." Sirius answered.

"I'm really sorry I"—

"I said not to worry about it!" Sirius replied, turning to face her for the first time in their conversation. He smiled at her and touched her cheek. "Don't worry your pretty head about it."

"Dominique! There you are!" Sirius and Dominique turned around to see Kierra running in their direction. "Oi, D, listen, I'm sorry, about back there…in our room…oh, hello Sirius"—

"What happened in your room?" Sirius asked, looking from Kierra to Dominique.

Kierra looked quickly at Dominique, looking a bit apprehensive.

"Oh…we just had a little misunderstanding about some stuff…" Dominique said quickly, "and it's quite alright Kierra."

"Is there any point in asking either of you to elaborate?" Sirius asked.

"Nope" Kierra and Dominique said together.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm off then," he said, looking at his watch. "I've got a hot study date." Sirius glanced over at Dominique to see her reaction. She looked neither alarmed or amused. She had simply raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "It's with James of course…" Sirius added, grinning at Dominique, making her and Kierra laugh.

"Well, you two have fun then" Dominique said, waving to Sirius as he departed.

Several hours later, James sat in transfiguration staring at the back of Lily Evans' head. 'God, this class is useless…' he thought, as he distantly heard Professor McGonagall's voice, lecturing the class about something or the other, he wasn't sure which. Just then, he noticed Sirius, who sat in the desk next to him, scribbling something on a scrap piece of parchment.

'ooh great, a note!' James thought, 'at last, something to break the monotony with…' James waited for Professor McGonagall to turn her back, and just as she did so, he turned to face Sirius, half expecting to reach over to get his note, but to his surprise, Sirius dropped his arm backwards, and held the note out for the student behind him, Dominique.

'oh drats,' James thought, 'he'd rather be passing notes to her, and not me?'

About a minute later, James heard Dominique whispering a spell, and within seconds the small piece of parchment flew back onto Sirius' desk.

James looked up to see if Professor McGonagall had noticed, and much to his disappointment, she hadn't. Their note passing had gone on for the remaining duration of the class, causing James to be even more distracted from the lecture than he already was.

"Hey Sirius," James called after him, who was walking with Dominique after class, "hey, I just got my order for dungbombs today…you wanna try some out with me?"

"Er, maybe later, Dominique and I were going to take a walk." Sirius replied, who instead of looking at James, was studying Dominique's side profile.

"Ah…ok…later then!" James said, turning to leave. 'I love Dominique! She's so special!' James muttered quietly in his high pitched, mocking voice that he used when he was annoyed. His mood brightened up slightly when he saw Lily in the common room with Remus.

"Hey Remus!" he shouted as he plopped onto the couch, sitting right next to Lily. "Oi, hello Lily!" he said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Hello James" she answered, not looking up from her book.

"Whatcha all doing?"

"Working on Potions homework." Lily replied.

James suddenly grinned. "Miss Evans, did you just call me James? As in my first name?"

"Took you a while to register that one, Potter" Lily said, smiling slightly. Suddenly feeling stupid, James leaned back in his seat and decided to be quiet for a few moments.

"Finished!" Lily announced happily. "Well, I'm gonna head on up, I think Alice and Kierra are already up there. Have either of you seen Dominique?" she asked Remus and James.

"yea…she's taking a walk with her lover boy…" James muttered with a frown.

"Aww…is somebody jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous"—

"Missing your other half?"

"Oh go away Evans, or I'll kiss you." James snapped, making a move towards her. Lily quickly backed away, with a look of amusement and disgust before answering, "alright, sorry! I'm off then.." and with that she disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

James stared at Remus, who was looking over his potions homework. About a minute later, Remus looked straight at James and smiled. "Are you going to say something to me, or are you going to keep staring?"

"I don't get it. What does Sirius see in her?"

"Oh geez, let's not start this again."

"But Moony"—

"James, if you're upset about Sirius spending more time with Dominique and less time with you, go talk to him!"

"Fine, maybe I will!" and James got up and walked out of the common room, only to return a few seconds later. He marched past Remus and as he walked up the stairs to the boys dormitory, he said, "maybe tomorrow though. I'm kind of tired right now."

Just as the common room began to empty out, Dominique came through the portrait hole, looking very rosy. When she spotted Remus, she immediately made her way to him and sat right next to him.

"hey D-- you ok there? You're all pink!" He touched her face but quickly removed his hand, "and you're like an icicle!"

"Oh, Sirius and I were taking a walk outside...it got kind of chilly" she said, resting her head on Remus' shoulder. She sighed, causing goosegumps to form all over Remus' body. 'oh boy' he thought.

"man, I am so tired. What are you reading?" she asked, pointing at the book he had just closed and put on the table in front of them.

"oh, this?" he reached for the book to show her the title, "Hogwarts, a History". Dominique rolled her eyes and laughed. "What?"

"You're such a dork, Remus."

"Touche."

Dominique closed her eyes and smiled, snuggling closer to Remus, making him all the more uneasy. "You make a nice pillow, you know that, Remus?"

"Er-- thanks".

"Really! You're--" Dominique could feel Remus' body stiffen against hers. "You alright?" she asked, as she pulled away from him.

"Sorry, I'm just not feeling well," he answered quickly, "full moon's coming you know".

"Oh, that's right... So, your friends know about this, right? Sirius, James.."

"and Peter. They're the only ones. So please don't mention it to anyone."

"Of course...I still remember the night it happened." Her voice was almost a whisper. "When we were five..." a tear slipped through Dominique's eye, taking the notice of Remus.

"Dominique, don't"--

"It should've been me, Remus"

"No, D, it was an accident, and in accidents, there's no shoulds and shouldn'ts... It happened to me, and that's that. There's no point in dwelling on the past".

Dominique simply nodded, and looked up at Remus and sighed, putting one of her hands on his cheek. "You're so good about these things..."

"Only because I've got such good friends" Remus said, leaning his forehead against hers, "to get me through these years...friends like you." Just as Dominique's face broke into a smile, the portrait hole swung open again, and a house elf appeared, carrying a large bouquet of red roses.

"Excuse me, are you Miss Dominique Fiore?" the house elf asked Dominique.

"Er, yes I am. Why?"

"These roses are from Mr. Sirius Black. He wanted them delivered to you right away." he said, handing the roses to Dominique.

"They're lovely, Thank you."

The house elf tipped his ratty cap and bowed before leaving.

Dominique closd her eyes and smelled the roses. "Beautiful" she sighed. "He's so sweet, isn't he?" she said, getting up.

"yea, he is!" Remus answered, trying to sound enthused.

"Well, I'm gonna head up, I've got to show these to the girls!" Dominique said excitedly, "goodnight Remus," and Dominque leant over behind Remus and kissed the top of his head.

"Night" he muttered as she went up the stairs. Remus turned to see if she was out of earshot, and when she was, he let out a loud groan. 'This is going to be a long year' he thought.


	5. Chapter 5: Opposites Attract

Chapter 5: Opposites Attract

"QUIDDITCH TIME! WOOOO"--

"James, Shut up!" Sirius groaned from underneath his covers.

"Get up! Come on, we've got tryouts! PADFOOT!"

"Ok, I'm up, I'm up! Geez, don't get your boxers in a knot Jamie.."

"Oh shit, I've got to wake up Alice…man, how am I going to get to their dorms?" A light bulb seemed to go off in his head, as he ran to grab some of his school books and took off. Soon Sirius could hear loud thumping noises coming from the bottom of the stairs. As he stretched out and pulled a t-shirt over his head, Sirius stepped outside the boys' dormitory and came down the stairs, only to see James at the foot of the stairs that led to the girls' dormitory, chucking books at the door.

"You're brilliant, Prongs, you know that?" Sirius said, leaning against the wall and letting out a yawn.

Just as James chucked his last book, the door swung open, and a very angry Dominique stood at the entrance.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Potter!"

"Hey, can you get Alice, we've got tryouts!"

"She's just gotten up! Tryouts for what?"

"Quidditch of course!"

"You have quidditch here!"

"yea, didn't they have it at your school?"

"No! Oh my gosh! Can I try out? I've got a broom!"

"Yea sure, be my guest…you and Alice meet me up at the quidditch pitch in 10 minutes, but no later, got that?"

"yea, sure" and with that, Dominique slammed the door shut. James turned to Sirius, who was still leaning against the wall, but his eyes were open now and he looked fully awake. "Boy, she looks good when she's mad"

"C'mon Padfoot," James said, rolling his eyes, "let's wait for them on the pitch."

Dominique ran to the bathroom door and began banging on it. "Alice, are you done yet? Hurry up!" Just then the door swung open, and Alice appeared at the entrance dressed in gray sweats.

"What's the rush?" Alice asked, pulling her broom from underneath her bed.

"I'm trying out too!"

"No way! Are you for real? Oh cool, what position?"

"Seeker I guess, I'm used to that position"—

"James is seeker you know, you'll have to go up against him"—

"Ugh, what are you guys rambling about?" Lily said groggily. She had just lifted herself out of bed and began rubbing her eyes.

"Quidditch tryouts! Dominique's trying out too!" Alice said excitedly.

"Really? Oh cool! Well, good luck to you guys"—

"hey, why don't you come and watch?" Alice asked.

"Eh, I dunno"—

"Come on, breakfast isn't for another 2 hours….what else are you going to do, go back to sleep?"

"Mmm…good idea…" Lily said, making a move to get back into bed.

"No…come on, we can use the support, come and watch us!" Alice said, dragging Lily by the arm and pushing her into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, Lily emerged from the bathroom, wearing bellbottom jeans and was in the process of buttoning up her white collared shirt.

"K, let's get a move on, I still needa use the bathroom!" said Dominique, rushing past Lily and slamming the door.

"Hey should we wake up Kierra, see if she wants to come? Otherwise when she wakes up and sees none of us here"—

"Good point, let's see if we can get her up…" Alice walked over to Kierra's bedside and nudged her gently.

"mphmmm…" Kierra gave a muffled moan from underneath her covers.

Lily giggled and came over to Kierra as well and began to nudge her a little harder. "Kierra…wake up!"—

"Oh Remus, don't stop…" Kierra said in a soft, muffled voice, causing Lily and Alice to jump back.

"Oh God…" Alice said with exasperation, "let's just leave alone…let her finish up her dream…"

"Good idea" Lily replied, "we'll just leave her a note." Just then, the bathroom door opened again and Dominique came out, wearing blue shorts and a white t-shirt.

"Ok, I'm ready! Oh hey, should we wake up Kierra and"—

"NO!" shouted Lily and Alice together, taking a few steps forward to keep Dominique from nearing Kierra.

"She's uh…having a really nice dream right now, it would be cruel of us to disturb her…" said Alice.

"Er"—

"She was getting lucky with Remus, do I have to say any more?"

"No, no…that's fine, ok let's just go then!" Dominique said quickly, grabbing her own broom, and heading out the door, followed by Lily and Alice.

5 minutes later, everyone had assembled onto the quidditch pitch and were sitting on the soft grass, chatting. Finally, James whistled to get everyone's attention. "Good morning fellow Gryffindors, I am very pleased to see so many eager faces this morning for tryouts! This year, we have two open spots, one for beater, and the other one for keeper. Of course, those of you who wish to, may challenge the current team members for their spots, which include the seeker, which would be myself, our other beater, Sirius Black, and our two chasers, Alice and Frank. The other current team members will evaluate those who wish to challenge the team mates. So, for example, if someone wanted to challenge me, Frank, Alice and Sirius would judge you. Got it? Well, without further adui, go ahead and line up behind the respective person whose position you are seeking."

"Bravo Jamie! Excellent speech! A-1!

"Oh shut up Sirius"

All the contenders began to line up behind Frank and Alice, and a few behind Sirius, while two more lines formed for the other beater position and keeper position. No one, however, dared to stand behind James. The only one who hadn't lined up yet was Dominique.

"Dominique, were you planning on trying out or what?" James called over at her.

"I don't know which position to try for"—

"What?" James strode over to Dominique and stood only a few inches away from her, "What do you mean, did you just come prancing down here, thinking you could just try out for whatever! Don't you have a specific position you play!"

"um, James, calm down" Sirius said.

"Well, I'm used to being seeker, but seeing as you play the position"—

"Well you're welcome to challenge me" James said cockily, running a hand through his hair.

"I would, but then I'd kick your ass and embarrass you in front of Lily" Dominique answered just as cockily, pointing a finger at Lily who sat in the bleachers nearby. "You know, I've never played keeper before, I think I'll try out for that"—

"What? You've never played keeper? Then there's no sense in trying out for it! This is a serious game Dominique"

"Or my name isn't Sirius!" chimed Sirius, "Ok, I'm gonna be quiet now…"

"No shit James. I can play serious."

"Why would you wanna play me, Dominique?" Sirius laughed, "Oh right, I'm done" he said quickly, as James shot him a glare.

"Well I'm trying out for keeper. Now if you'd be so kind as to get out of my way, you're blocking the line". Dominique said, walking around James, and lining up behind the other contending keepers.

"Ooh James, she told you!"

"I thought you said you were gonna be quiet" James said, turning to Sirius.

"ehh…"

As the tryouts progressed, James paid close attention to Dominique. He hated to admit it, but she was good. He just couldn't believe that she had never played keeper before. She played as if she had been playing the position for years. Though he hadn't yet seen the other prospective players, he had a feeling that she was a keeper (heehee…pun..yea, corny I know…lol).

Sirius watched Dominique block almost every quaffle that came her way. She was pretty good. Best he'd ever seen actually. He mounted his broom and flew up to Dominique, who had just rebounded yet another quaffle.

"Hey D! Er, can I call you that?"

"yea, sure"

"You're really good! I must say, I'm quite impressed! But let me show you some other techniques in blocking, that might help out a little." With that, Sirius took over the posts and showed Dominique how to use the end of her broom to block off incoming quaffles.

"Here now you try" he said, giving her way to the posts.

As the next quaffle came hurtling towards Dominique, she whacked it back into the direction it came from with the butt of her broom, just as Sirius had shown her.

"Excellent!" Sirius shouted, "you're a fast learner! Well, good luck with the rest of tryouts!" Sirius said, smacking her butt as he flew past her. "Oh! Sorry about that! Habit with the guys, you know…" Sirius said quickly.

"Oh…no its ok" Dominique answered, laughing.

Sirius grinned as he flew towards the ground. 'habit with the guys, my ass…I wouldn't smack James' ass if he paid me!' Just then, Sirius' thoughts were interrupted by an annoyingly loud chuckle.

"I can't believe Dominique let you do that to her…habit with the guys? Please! You wouldn't smack my ass if I paid you, would you Sirius?" And with that, James bent over, smacking his butt, inviting Sirius to hit it.

"Aren't you supposed to be running tryouts, James?"

"Oh, right!" and with that, James took off on his broom.

An hour later, tryouts finally came to an end, and James had picked out his new players. "Well, I want to thank you all for coming. First of all, all of our current players will remain. But our open spots have been filled as follows: Out other beater will be Kyle Watson, and out keeper will be Dominique Fiore."

"Wait to go D!" Sirius pulled her into a big hug, lifting her a few inches off the ground in the process. Of course, James couldn't resist an opportunity to vex his best friend, so he jumped on both of them and screamed at the top of his lungs, "YAY FOR QUIDDITCH! I'M SO HAPPY GUYS!"

"Dude, James, get off of me! I'm not Lily!"

"Hey!" Lily shouted. She had just walked over to join them to hear who got picked.

Sirius turned to Dominique and took her hand. "Why don't we celebrate"—

"hey yea cool sounds like fun!"

"Uh, James, I was sorta thinking just the two of us"

"Sirius! Look, I know we like to joke about these things, but not in front of the ladies!"

"No! I meant just me and D"

"Just me and you?" Dominique piped up.

"Er yea…call it our first real date, if you will" Sirius smiled. "How about the next Hogsmead trip?"

"Love to!"

"Awww…" came the voices of James and Lily in unison, though there was a note of sarcasm in James' voice. They looked at each other at once; James smiled at Lily, while she in return only grimaced and then stalked off, followed by James at her heels. "Lily wait for me! LILY!" When he finally caught up with her, he grabbed her by the arm to keep her from going further, "Lily, please…why don't you give me a chance? Let me take you out on a date this weekend, at Hogsmead. I promise I'll be a perfect gentleman!" James pleaded with her, making sure to pout to bring out his puppy eyes. 'Damn those eyes' Lily thought, 'they make him look even cuter…' "Oh fine"—

"WOOOHOO! SIRIUS! SIRIUS! GUESS WHAT? LILY SAID YES! WOOHOO!" and James did cartwheels all the way down to the castle.

Back in the castle, while tryouts had still been going on, Kierra had just rolled out of bed. "Er, guys?" she asked uncertainly, looking around at the empty beds. She suddenly spotted a piece of parchment laying on her nightstand. It read: 'Alice and D are gone to quidditch tryouts, I went to watch them. Be back in time for breakfast. Love, Lily'. Kierra looked at the clock that hung on the wall, which read 8:00 A.M. 'Well, breakfast has started, they should be coming soon' Kierra thought as she went to the bathroom to freshen up.

Twenty minutes later, Kierra headed down the stairs, through the common room, and out the portrait hole, to the Great Hall. When she entered, she saw that it was pretty empty. It was Saturday morning, after all, most students slept in and didn't come down to breakfast until 9 or 10. As Kierra made her way to the Gryffindor table, she looked around for her classmates in her year to sit with. However, the only ones she found were Remus and Peter. 'Should I…?' Kierra thought. However, matters were taken out of her hands when Peter looked up and spotted her. He waved happily at her and motioned for her to join them. Kierra gulped and waved back.

"Hey, morning guys!" Kierra said, taking a seat next to Peter.

"Hey" Remus said, helping himself to a blueberry muffin. "Where are your friends?"

"Oh, Alice and Dominique are in tryouts, Lily went to watch"

"Oh, Dominique's trying out? For what position?"

"No idea."

"You didn't want to watch?"

"Er..I was asleep when they left, so either they didn't bother to get me up, or they just couldn't wake me up…probably the latter" Kierra said.

"Ah, I see" Remus replied, not sounding too interested.

"Hey Kierra, do you have your history essay on you?" Peter asked.

"yea, hold on, let me pull it out of my ass" Kierra said sarcastically, but smiling at Peter. "No I don't have it. It's Saturday, shoot I haven't even started it Peter!" Kierra stole a quick glance at Remus to see his reaction to her, and to her surprise, he was smiling slightly, and looking down, seemingly not wanting to further embarrass Peter by laughing at him.

Just then, a loud clap of thunder came from outside, causing both Kierra and Peter to jump a little. Remus however, hadn't seemed startled at all by the sudden boom, but only smiled when he saw the two getting scared, causing Kierra in return, to turn a but pink from embarrassment at being scared so easily.

"Hope they're finishing up soon. They'll be soaked otherwise" Kierra said, looking out the window.

"Nah, we got in before the rain even started!" James announced as he came up behind them. "And now, let me introduce to you, our new keeper…." James stopped when he saw Frank whip out his wand, and taking Alice's, started a drumroll with them against the table.

"Dominique Fiore!" Sirius shouted, picking her up and hoisting her on his shoulders, causing her to give a small scream.

"Hey way to go D!" Kierra cheered, getting up. "Sirius put her down!" Kierra shouted, helping Dominique to get back on the ground, and pulling her into a hug. "Good job!"

"Thanks!"

"Congratulations Dominique!" Remus said, getting up as well. "Thanks Remus!" she said, taking him by surprise by brushing a kiss across his cheek.

"G-gg-good job Dominique!" Peter squealed. "Thanks!"

"Hey, who's the other beater?" Remus asked.

"Oh, Tyler Watson. I think he'll do a good job. Big, tall guy—what?" James turned to Lily, Dominique, Kierra, and Alice, who were all giggling.

"Nothing…" Lily said quickly, smirking at the girls.

"Oh geez, they think he's cute" Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"OHH OOH GUYS!" James shouted, startling everyone around him.

"James, this isn't a group orgy"—Sirius said irritably.

"Shut up Padfoot! AAAH GUYS GUESS WHAT?" He said, turning to Remus and Peter, "Lily and I are an item!"

"Oh my"—Kierra started, looking at Lily, most amused.

"We are NOT an item! And we never will be one if you act like that Potter!" Lily snapped. "We're just going on a date. That's it." She said with finality, as she sat down for breakfast.

"I just can't believe you finally said yes to him" Kierra laughed, as the girls sat leisurely in the common room. "After all these years…"

"I know…this is a wretched beginning" Lily smiled slightly at her friends.

"What made you finally say yes?" Dominique asked.

"I don't know…I mean, I've always thought he was cute…but an asshole…I dunno…I guess the way he looked today when he asked…he looked almost desperate" Lily laughed a little, remembering how James had asked her out. "But he seemed to…nice…and sincere when he asked, I thought, ok, maybe I'll just give him this one chance, you know? Maybe I've been wrong about him…and he's really a nice guy…so, I'm just going on this one date to test him out, I guess." Lily said, getting up. "Well, I've got to lead a prefects meeting with Potter. I'll see you guys in a bit" and with that, Lily went through the portrait hole, leaving Alice, Kierra and Dominique sitting on the couch together. But soon, Kierra got up as well and turned to go. "I've got to meet Peter in the library.." she said, rolling her eyes with disgust. "Wants me to help him with our history of magic paper…urgh…I hope he doesn't try anything on me" she muttered as she left, making Alice and Dominique laugh.

"Well, what do you say about Lily and James? Think it'll last?" Alice asked.

"With some difficulty, I'm sure. But yes, I think it will" Dominique smiled.

"Funny, how she's been so anti-James all these years, and suddenly she's willing to go out with him…and who'd ever thought those two…such opposites…" Alice commented.

"Well, opposites often do attract each other." Dominique said, smiling.

"What are you grinning about?"

"Oh, I couldn't help but notice what opposites Kierra and Remus are…"

"Are you suggesting that they'll get together? I mean, I'd love for them to…I want Kierra to be happy…but you think it's likely? She liked him all last year...Remus has either not picked up on it yet, or he's just not interested..."

"Well, guys are slow...and Kierra's pretty good about keeping her crush a secret... but I'll be very much surprised if it doesn't happen soon."

"But…they don't get along that great…I mean, well since the first day of school, you know, with Kierra hexing him…I mean, he's polite to her…but just polite…no more than that…"

"yea…I know…but that can be fixed…he just needs to notice her a bit more…."

"Do you have a plan?" Alice asked, cocking an eyebrow at Dominique.

"Sort of…I think it'll take a bit of effort from us to get her and Remus together…But it'll be worth it. They'd do great together. Remus needs a girl like her. He's so calm and quiet…a bit predictable sometimes…and Kierra…well, she's just the opposite…loud, emotional, she has much more energy and stuff…he could use someone like her to lighten himself up a bit…"

"Well, what's your plan?" Alice asked again.

"Oh well, I think Kierra needs to learn that love is just a little game, and we needa show her how to play to her strengths. As soon as she comes back from the library, and Lily comes back from her meeting, we'll draw out the game plan" Dominique said, as she and Alice headed back to their dormitory to wait for the girls.


	6. Chapter 6: Games, Confessions, and the M...

Chapter 6: Games, Confessions, and the Marauder's Map

Alice and Dominique sat in their dormitory, painting their nails while they waited for Kierra to return from the library, and Lily to return from the prefects' meeting.

"Dear, this shade is way too bright for me" Alice said, holding her hands out to examine them. "I should've gone with a lighter shade, magenta isn't me".

"I think it looks great! You're just not used to those colors, honestly though, it suits you fine" Dominique answered, carefully sealing her bottle of red polish, as to not spoil her manicure.

Just then, the door burst open and in walked Lily.

"How'd your meeting go?" Dominique asked, blowing on her nails.

"Great! We've convinced Dumbledore to allow the 7th years extra Hogsmead visits, aside from the monthly ones that we have with the other students. The 7th years now get the privilege to go every other weekend!" Lily said excitedly.

"Excellent!" Alice said, "Potter treating you O.K?"

"Yea, actually he was being really nice to me! He seemed kind of nervous actually, when we talked…but he kept stuttering, and he wasn't being as loud and obnoxious as he usually is." Lily said, sitting Indian-style on her bed.

"Aww, how cute is he?" Alice exclaimed. Lily simply rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, he's trying to impress you, since you're going on a date with him next Saturday! That's sweet of him!"

"Yea, I guess…" Lily said, "So, what have you two been up to?"

"Well, we were discussing how we're going to hook Kierra and Remus up!" Alice said, exchanging excited looks with Dominique.

"And speaking of the devil"—Dominique said, pointing to the door. Kierra had just come up to the dormitory, with several books under her arm. "Well, how'd your essay writing date go?" Dominique giggled.

"Oh, shut it…" Kierra said grumpily as she set her books on the floor by her bed. "Well, at least I got my essay done." She said.

"So I take it that it didn't go too well?" Lily asked. "He wasn't being annoying was he?"

"Well, I was doing research for like the both of us, pretty much wrote his essay…keeps asking me questions, when most of the answers were in the book…urgh, why of all people, does it have to be me that he likes? And he's got a girlfriend! That cute little fifth year who tails him 24/7..."

"Don't worry Kierra, it's probably just a little crush that'll pass away soon enough," Dominique said, "since he's got that little girlfriend of his I highly doubt he'll make any moves on you."

"Let's hope not."

"Besides, he wouldn't dare make a move on you, not when you're gonna be Remus' girlfriend!" Alice said excitedly.

"Er, what?" Kierra looked from Alice to Dominique, to Lily.

"Dude, I don't know anything, they just told me right before you came in here!" Lily said.

"Ok, listen Kierra," Dominique said, sitting next to Kierra on her bed, "We all really want you to hook up with Remus. We think you two would be perfect for each other. But…it's going to require some effort on your part"—

"I'm not gonna ask him out!"

"You won't have to! You just need to get him to ask you out!"

"And how would I do that?"

"Well, he needs to notice you first!" Alice said.

"I think he already does. He notices that I'm an idiot"—

"No he doesn't!" Dominique interjected, "look, I was just telling Alice, before you and Lily came in…oftentimes, love is nothing more than a game…and in any game…you have to play to your strengths"—Dominique turned to Lily, who began to snigger. "What?"

"you sound like a coach…"

"I am so confused…" Kierra said, looking at Alice for help. "What do you mean you want me to play to my strengths? I haven't gotten any!"

"Yes you do! Look, you just need to learn to flaunt a little…strut your stuff"—

"I haven't gotten any stuff!"

"Yes you do!" Dominique replied, pointing at Kierra's chest.

"Oh gosh, you want me to flash my boobs at Remus? Look, I'm not that desperate"—

"No! I'm giving you an example! I'm just saying you've got some assets that you should use to your advantage! So, let's see, stand up Kierra" Dominique said.

"Why"—

"Just stand up"—Dominique ordered, and Kierra stood up. "Ok now turn around slowly"

"Oh God, I feel like I'm on display" Kierra groaned as she took tiny steps clockwise so the girls could examine her."

"Well geez, those are like the nicest legs I've ever seen" Dominique muttered, "you should really wear skirts on the weekends"—

"I hate skirts! And five days of skirts a week is more than enough for me!"

"Well, you need to learn to like them!" Dominique replied.

Kierra let out another groan. "Look, I don't know if I want to play this little game, as you call it. I like Remus, but I don't think I want to go to these extents to get him…"

"Alright…fine…" Dominique said, crossing her arms over her chest, pretending not to care. Kierra rolled her eyes and laughed. "We'll see, O.K? Right now, all I want is to sleep. We'll talk about it tomorrow, k?"

"Alright then" Dominique said, as she made her way to her own bed.

"Night guys" Kierra said as she pulled the curtains around her four poster bed.

"Ahh Miss Fiore there you are! I need to talk to you, please come into my office." The newly appointed headmistress, Madam Maxim said.

"Yes Ma'am" Dominique replied as she followed her into her office.

"Well, you might want to sit down for this", Madam Maxim cleared her throat as Dominique took a seat, "my dear, I am very sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but…I'm afraid I just received a note from your great uncle, Professor Dumbledore. Your parents were killed this morning in an auto accident. I'm sorry." Madam Maxim slowly extended her arm out, to give her the letter from Dumbledore. "He explained the full details here."

Dominique took the parchment, unrolled it, and read over it. When she reached the end, she looked up at Madam Maxim. "I don't have any family"—

"You have Dumbledore, my dear. He'll be taking care of you"—

Tears came down her eyes. "But I don't even know him! And my parents said he was a weirdo"—

"Dominique, you didn't take everything your parents say to be the truth, did you? I know how you felt about them"—

"Well, all the same…" Dominique sniffed. Madam Maxim looked at Dominique with sad eyes. "I am sorry, dear." She sighed and got up. "I need to make my appearance at the dinner right now. Do you want me to summon Tyler here for you"—

"No!"

Madam Maxim looked at her appraisingly.

"I mean, no,..no thank you." Madam Maxim walked up closer to her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing…I..er…I broke up with him, that's all." Madam Maxim nodded slowly.

"Well, Professor Dumbledore will be here shortly to escort you out. I suppose it would be best to for you to pack up then."

"Right. Well, Good bye Ma'am"

"Good bye Dominique" she replied as she pulled her into a hug, lifting her off the ground as she did so.

Dominique opened her eyes and sat up, looking around her dormitory at the sleeping girls. 'I can't believe I'm here sometimes' she thought as she lay back down in her bed, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep.

"Look how beautiful it is outside!" Kierra exclaimed as she looked out the window from the common room. "Let's go out"—

Dominique groaned. "I have to finish my homework though!"

"Oh come on, you've got all day!"

"Kierra, it's like 4pm, most of the day is gone! You guys can go on without me, I need to finish this essay for Care of Magical Creatures, so I'll just see you all at dinner."

"Alright, see you then!" Kierra called after her as she, Alice and Lily headed out the portrait hole.

Dominique sighed and looked around. The Gryffindor common room was practically empty, it was such a nice day that everyone was outside, enjoying the fresh air. The only other person in her acquaintance whom hadn't gone outside and was in the common room studying like her, was Remus, who sat right next to her on the couch.

"Remus, you know anything about phoenixes, aside from the fact that their tears have healing powers?"

Remus looked up from his stack of work. "Er…well, I know that they catch on fire when they die, and are reborn again…"

"Ooh, that's right! Thanks!" Dominique said excitedly as she began scribbling furiously on her parchment. "Oh, I just remembered! Dumbedore's got a phoenix! Maybe I could ask him!" Dominique said as she put her quill down, and looked at the clock. "Well, I suppose I'll ask him after dinner then…Say, what are you working on?"

"Finished! Sorry, did you say something?" Remus asked as he closed his books.

Dominique smiled. "What were you working on?"

"Oh, transfiguration homework"

"Oh" Dominique leaned over and rested her head against Remus' shoulder and closed her eyes. "Remus…"

"Hmm?"

"You're not seeing anyone, are you?"

Remus stopped reading his book, but kept looking at the pages. "Er…no, why?"

"Oh, just wondering…are you interested in anyone?"

"uhh…why?"

Dominique lifted her head from his shoulder and stared at him as if he had said something stupid. "You can tell me, Remus! How far do we go back now?"

Remus laughed. "Right, right…well…if you must know…there is a girl"—

"oooh! Who?"

"but I'm not going for her, because she's taken…and I'm not telling you who it is"—

"Why? It's not like I'm not gonna get her to break up with her boyfriend to get her to go out with you!"

"Yea…that is something you would do" Remus smiled.

"No it's not!" Remus raised an eyebrow at her. "Ok, it is…" she smiled back. "Well, I feel bad for that girl, whoever she is…she is missing out! And I bet the guy she's dating is some deadbeat compared to you"

Remus let out a hollow laugh. "You flatter me. He's a nice guy though."

"Not as nice as you though, I'm sure" she smiled as she took his hand in her own.

'Then why are you dating him and not me?' Remus thought, as he smiled back at her, putting an arm around her as she rested her head against him again.

Dominique closed her eyes, but started up again, "Really Remus, you're such a sweet guy. Can't understand why you haven't got a girlfriend. Well, I must say though that I'd want her to be deserving of you…"

"Can you think of anyone here who deserves me?" he asked, laughing.

Dominique looked up at him, her face a few inches from his. She smiled slyly. "Yes, I can think of one girl who would."

He looked at her, a bit startled, but regained his composure. "Really, who?"

"Guess"

"No, I hate guessing games! Come on, tell me. I bet she doesn't deserve me at all" he said sarcastically, running his fingers through his hair, ruffling it up, Potter style.

Dominique laughed. "Ok, she's in Gryffindor, that's all I'll say"—

"D, there's a lot of girls in Gryffindor! What year is she?"

"I'm not saying! There's only a few girls in each year!"

"She's not like a first year is she? That'd be kind of gross…" he said, making her laugh.

"No, no…she's much older than that…"

"What's she like?"

"Well…she's very pretty…mmm…she's smart…funny….very cute…"

"She sounds like you..."

Dominique laughed. "Remus!"

"No really, you are all of that…" he said, looking deeply into her dark brown eyes. Dominique smiled at first, but as she stared back at him, she realized something. He wasn't joking around, he looked very serious…and his eyes…that look in his eyes…. Suddenly, a light seemed to flicker on in Dominique's head. "Remus…" she gasped as her smile melted.

Realizing that Dominique had seen through him, Remus let go of her, causing her to fall back on the couch slightly.

"You don't…"

"I do" Remus said, looking at the ground. "You're the girl who's taken…"

"no…you don't"—

"yes…I'm sorry…" he looked up at her anxiously. "I really am. Don't think I'm happy about this, D…you're one of my best friends….and Sirius, he's like my brother! Great…I feel like shit now for doing this to you"—

"How long…have you?"

"Since the first day I saw you, Dominique. Just my luck that Sirius got to you first, I suppose…"

Dominique looked down at her hands, trying not to let Remus see tears well up in her eyes.

"Well," he continued, "you're with him now…I can see you two are quite fond of each other…I don't want to be the one to ruin it for you guys. I mean, I hope I haven't already…"

Dominique simply nodded in understanding.

"You don't…well…I mean…I'm uh…assuming my feelings aren't reciprocated?"

Dominique looked up at him and took his hands again. "I've always loved you, Remus. You've been like the big brother that I've never had. I want to keep seeing you as that…" Remus nodded, and looked back at Dominique, whose eyes were filling with tears.

"Now it's nothing to cry about D…"

"I can't believe all this time though…" she said more to herself than to him, "you were supposed to like her…oh…oh, I'm a terrible person…" Dominique whispered through her tears.

"Who?"

"Oh, nevermind!" Dominique snapped. She stood up quickly, and before Remus could protest, she was out of the common room.

"Aaah Dinner! I'm famished!" James announced as he took a seat in the great hall.

"You're always famished, Prongs" Sirius said, as he sat next to him.

James grinned as he reached for a roll. "Hey I'm a growing boy, I need extra nourishment!"

"Of course you do" replied Sirius, who was looking down the Gryffindor table, hoping to catch a glimpse of Dominique.

"Hey Moony!" Peter waved at Remus as he came to join the boys. "Where were you? We thought you'd be in the common room, but you weren't there when we came, so we went to dinner without you!"

"Oh..sorry…I uh…fancied a walk outside…"

Twenty minutes later, (yes, the boys were still eating, the pigs) the marauders were joined by Lily, Alice and Kierra.

"Oi ladies, care to join us?" James asked, scooting over to make way for Lily, who took the seat.

"Have you guys seen Dominique?" Lily asked abruptly.

"What she's not with you?" asked James.

"Ugh, don't talk with your mouth full, Potter! And does it look like she's with us? Why do you think we're asking in the first place?" Kierra retorted.

"Don't get frisky with me, Nakofsky, save it for—OWWW!" Alice had pinched James very hard in the arm.

"Do you know where she is or not?" Alice asked.

"No!"

"You were probably with her last, Remus" Lily said, "where did she go after you guys studied in the common room?"

"Oh…uh…you know, she didn't look too well…maybe she went to the hospital wing…"

"She was sick? She didn't say anything about where she was going?"

"Sick…I don't know…maybe….where she was going, she never said…I'm just throwing a suggestion…"

"I know how we can find her!" Sirius said, getting up.

"How?" Lily, Alice and Kierra asked at once.

"Come on, let's go to our dormitory"—

"wait…whaat?" James said, "Why are we going"—

"the map!"

"What map?" asked Kierra.

"I don't know! We haven't got a map!" James exclaimed, grabbing the basket of rolls from the table as they left the great hall. He ran to catch up with Sirius. "Sirius, what are you doing!" he hissed, "that's top secret!"

"What's top secret?" Kierra asked; she too had caught up with Sirius.

"Nothing!"

"Oh shut it James" Sirius said, as they made their way through the portrait hole, "Come on!" Sirius shouted as he led the way up to the boys' dormitory.

"Hey how come they can come up here, but we can't go into their dorms?" Peter asked, as he saw that all the girls were able to make it safely up the steps.

"Oh, the architects of Hogwarts thought boys were less trustworthy than girls" Lily said.

"They had good reason too, I think" Remus added.

"Oh my gosh, this place is disgusting!" Lily exclaimed as they entered the dormitory. Books and clothes lay around the floor everywhere. Plates of food were scattered around, a spilt box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans lay on one of the unmade beds.

"Ugh, boys are gross…" Alice said, as she accidentally got her foot caught in a pair of boxers. "Those are Frank's you know.." James commented.

"Ohh…"

"Where is it? James"—Sirius was searching under one of the beds.

"Sirius, why don't we all split up and look around the castle!"

"Do you know how big this castle is, James?" Alice snapped.

James ignored her and continued at Sirius. "Come on! We were bounded by secrecy! We can't reveal our secrets to them! Doesn't fraternity mean anything to you?" James bellowed.

"James, I want to know where Dominique is, o.k.?"

"She's probably not in any trouble"—

"I don't care—AH here it is! I just want to know where she is!" Sirius opened up a battered up piece of parchment.

"What is that?" Lily asked.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" Sirius said, tapping his wand on the parchment.

"Monsieur. Moony, Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail…present…The Marauders' Map…" Lily read, "what the hell is that?"

"This is a map of Hogwarts, and it shows you all people that are moving around the castle. We made it ourselves…" Sirius said proudly.

"Way cool! So those are your nicknames?" Kierra asked. "Ohh! I remember hearing one of you guys call Remus Moony! So who's Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail?"

"I'm Padfoot" Sirius answered.

"I'm Prongs" added James.

"And I'm Wormtail" said Peter.

"What's with the names"—

"Never you mind. Look we're trying to find D…look, there she is!" Sirius said, pointing to a dot labeled Dominique, she was walking around in a small circle, in the girls bathroom.

"Wait hold on…" Alice looked at the map more closely. "is that the one bathroom"—

"that has Moaning Myrtle in there?" Lily finished.

"I think so" Kierra answered.

"Well," James took the map from Sirius, "Mischief managed" he said as he tapped the map, he turned to the girls. "Listen, we've helped you find your friend, so you cannot, and I repeat, you CANNOT tell anyone about this map, got it?" The girls nodded quickly and ran out the door, followed by the boys at their heels.

Dominique had been walking aimlessly around the castle for half an hour. During her meandering, she walked passed a bathroom, from which came a shrill moan.

"That's probably the loo the girls are always talking about! She can't be that bad…" Dominique thought as she came into the bathroom.

"Hello…?" Dominique called out. SPLASH! One of the toilets seemed to have overflowed and water exploded from it, followed by a loud cackle.

"What do you want!" asked the ghost who had just come out of the exploding toilet.

"You must be Myrtle then?" Dominique asked.

"I can't believe it! So even 50 years after my death, girls still gossip about me!"

"Oh dear…" Dominique muttered. She leaned against the tiled wall of the bathroom and sunk to the ground, crying.

"Ah, I see that the girls have found a new victim to pick on? You've come crying to the bathroom now, huh? Well that's what I used to do…I'd come in here almost every day to cry my sorrows"—

"No one's picking on me"—Dominique said between cries.

"Then what you crying about?" Myrtle asked, floating over towards Dominique. Her tone of annoyance seemed to have disappeared, and was replaced by curiosity.

"I just feel guilty"—

"Oh, so you must be one of those girls, on the other end! The bully! I had a feeling…no way you could have been in my place…too pretty to be a victim of teasing…."

"I never bullied anyone!" Dominique replied. "I just feel guilty, because I wanted to hook up two of my friends…cause she liked him….but….I found out he likes me…and I feel bad about it…I feel bad for her…" she sniffed.

Myrtle rolled her ghostly eyes. "You call that a problem? I wish I had problems like that! You want to know what people used to make fun of me about? My glasses!"

"You know, why don't you tell someone who cares, Myrtle!" Dominique retored, as she got up. Just then she could hear voices coming from outside the bathroom.

"Oi, here it is guys!" she heard Kierra's voice.

"You can come in, no one uses this bathroom" she heard Alice say.

"Cool, I've never been in a girls' bathroom before!" she heard James say excitedly.

Dominique quickly turned to Myrtle. "Don't you dare say anything to them!" she said harshly.

Myrtle smiled. "YOOHOOO IN HERE! OUR LOVELY DEAR HAS BEEN CRYING HER EYES OUT! HEY WHERE'RE YOU GOING?" Myrtle shouted as Dominique ran out of the bathroom. 'Hah…she can't follow me out' Dominique thought as she shut the bathroom door behind her.

"Dominique! You've been here all this time?" Lily shouted as she ran over to her. Dominique tried laughing but choked halfway through when she saw that Remus was amongst the search party. "What happened?"

"N-nn-nothing…" Dominique said quickly, trying to avoid Remus' eyes, as well as Kierra's and Sirius'.

"Come on…something's wrong D, what happened?" Kierra asked. Dominique looked around her. They were all closing in on her, pressuring her to talk. All except Remus, who stood at the edge of the circle, hands in his pockets. Dominique shut her eyes tightly to keep the tears from coming down again. Without thinking, she pushed herself through her group of friends, smacking the first person who tried to hold her back. "Ooof!" she heard Sirius grunt.

"I'm sorry!" She called out after him as she stormed off. "I just want to be alone!" Dominique sprinted up the stairs, two at a time, determined to get some solace, and she only knew one place to get that.

"Lemon drop"

As the eagle statue swerved out of the way for her, Dominique went up another flight of stairs, and found herself standing in front of a heavy wooden door. She knocked lightly on it, hoping it wasn't empty.

"Come in."

Dominique slowly opened the door, much to her relief, to find a small old man with a very long, white beard, with half moon shaped glasses, sitting at his desk.

"Are you busy?"

"Not for you dear. Have a seat" he said, indicating the chair that sat opposite of him. "You know, I'm very glad to see you, Dominique. I was a bit worried you'd never come and visit your great-uncle."

"Sorry"—

"No need to apologize, Dominique. Now, I am thinking that you came in here for a particular reason. Is there something you wanted to tell me?"

Dominique nodded. "I…um…are there any extra rooms around here?"

Dumbledore stared at her, half amused, half perplexed. "Do you not find your dormitory to be suitable?"

"No, its great…it's just that…I don't want to see my friends…I don't want to go back to the Gryffindor common room to see anyone…I don't want to face them."

"What is troubling you, my dear?"

"You'll think it's stupid…"

"There are no such things as stupid troubles, Dominique".

"Yea there are…well, no matter. Well…I…was trying to help a friend with something…but it sort of backfired…" Dominique said slowly, trying to be as vague as possible.

"Dominique, I'm afraid you'll have to elaborate for me, as I am not of understanding. What exactly did you try to help your friend with?"

"getaboyfriend" Dominique mumbled.

"I see". Can I conclude then, as you said your plan backfired, this boy…er...likes you?"

"yes…"

"Mr. Black?"

"No…I mean, he does, and I like him too…we're together, I guess…but…I was trying to set my friend up with some other guy…and its even worse because he's friends with Sirius…"

"I see…" Dumbledore nodded in acknowledgement. 'He's not stupid. He probably knows I'm talking about Remus' Dominique thought.

"Pardon the interruption Headmaster," one of the portraits in Dumbledore's office spoke up, "but I couldn't help overhearing this young dame mention my great-great-grandson's name! Is the lady being courted by him?"

Dumbledore let out a small sigh. "Dominique, this is Phineas Nigellus, he was once a headmaster here at Hogwarts, and is the great-great-grandfather of Mr. Black."

Dominique looked up at the portrait of the tall, well built man, who was dressed in all black. "Pleased to meet you sir" Dominique said, trying to smile.

"Well, I'll be very happy to convey the news to Mr. and Mrs. Black!" Phineas announced, running out of the portrait.

"Phineas"—Dumbledore called after him, but he had already disappeared. "Well," he said, turning back to Dominique, "Phineas often forgets that Sirius is not on good terms with his parents, and that they've disowned him. I expect he'll be back here in no time, telling us about their reactions. Well, enough digression. So, it seems that you're caught in a bit of a love triangle then? Or, a square, rather?"

"yea, pretty much"

"Did you come to get advice on the matter?"

"Yes…no….I don't know…I just needed to talk, I guess…I mean, I don't know how to act around them now…so I guess advice is welcomed…" Dominique said.

"Well, in my 100 years as headmaster, this is the first time someone has ever approached me on the subject of love. Well, man-woman love…Well, there are firsts for everyone…let this be mine…Dominique, how do you feel about Sirius?"

"Well…I just met him…but I like him…he's really nice…interesting guy…"

"And your friend…the one who likes you…what do you think of him?"

"I like him too…even more, as a matter of fact, since I've known him longer…but I see him as a brother."

"Well, it seems perfectly clear to me what you should do."

"Stay with Sirius..and…stay friends with Re—oh hell, I'm sure you knew I was talking about Remus, didn't you?" Dominique asked. Dumbledore nodded.

"He is a good boy. I was surprised actually when I saw that your affections went towards Sirius and not him…I knew that you two had grown up together, so I only thought you two would have…coupled up….but on the other hand, young Mr. Black is also a good boy, in his own ways, and he can be a quite determined fellow, as I saw on the day you got sorted" he said, his eyes twinkling at her.

"So you approve of him then?" Dominique asked, smiling for the first time that day.

"Do you need my blessings?"

"No, but I should like to know I have them all the same" Dominique replied.

"Yes, I approve of him completely. And I daresay Remus will soon enough find love elsewhere, perhaps in Miss Nakofky…she's a good girl…"

"Uncle Alby! You knew I was talking about her too?"

Dumbledore smiled slightly. "Well, I was only hypothesizing…and Dominique my dear, I ask only one favor of you."

"Anything"

"If you could limit the usage of that nickname to only our private conversations? I don't think the ministry, nor parents, would be too thrilled at having a headmaster named Professor Alby."

Dominique smiled. "Got it".

"Well, any other preoccupations you'd like to tell me about? How do you find Hogwarts? Not homesick are you?"

"Well, only for the food…but otherwise I'm O.K." Dominique replied.

Dumbledore nodded. "Well, if that is it, and if you don't want the extra room"—

"I'm fine…oh, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Do you know anything about phoenixes? Since you've got Fawkes…and I've got an essay to write"—

Dumbledore smiled. "I am afraid that I cannot assist you too much with your homework, as that is your own responsibility, my dear. However," Dumbledore walked over to one of his bookshelves, and pulled out a thin, colorful book, with a picture of a bright red phoenix on the cover, flapping its wings. "you might find this book to be useful in your research".

"Oh wow…thanks! Well…I'll see you…good night"

"good night Dominique".

As Dominique came through the portrait hole, she sighed with relief to see that Remus was not there. Instead, there was Alice, Kierra, Lily, and Sirius, staring at her, as if they knew she was coming at any second.

"About time!" Kierra said, "we were worried! What took you so long?"

"I was…just…"

"Talking to Dumbledore?" Sirius asked.

"What? How'd you know"—

"I'll explain later. Is everything ok?" Sirius asked.

"Yea, everything's fine…look, I'm tired, I just want to sleep right now. Can I just talk in the morning?" Dominique yawned and headed up the stairs without waiting for a response, leaving Sirius and the girls staring after her with curiosity.


	7. Chapter 7: Kierra's New Look

Chapter 7

The following morning, the marauders sat at the Gryffindor table in the great hall, hastily trying to finish their potions homework while downing their breakfast. Remus, who was the only one who had finished all his homework the night before, carefully glanced down towards the door every few seconds while enjoying his leisure breakfast.

"Wonder what happened with Dominique last night" Sirius said, as he scribbled words across his parchment, "oh damn," he muttered, as he scratched out what he had just written, "wrote Dominique's name instead of dorchet affect..."

"Maybe we shouldn't bother her about it" Remus said, resting his teacup on his saucer. "She doesn't like it when people try to get her to talk...she likes to keep things to herself"—

"if whatever happened to her was bad enough to make her cry, she's got to talk...damn, I did it again..." Sirius said as he once again began to scratch out what he just wrote.

"I'm sure she'll come around, but we just shouldn't pester her about it, that's all..." Remus said, glancing over at the great hall entrance again. Just then, Dominique, Alice and Lily entered the hall, and took seats at the Gryffindor table not far from where the boys sat.

Sirius looked up from his homework just in time to see Dominique taking a seat. As he shut his book and got up, Remus took hold of his arm and pulled him back down. "Sirius"--

"But I wanna know!"

"He's right, Sirius. Leave her alone for now..." James said, not looking up from his homework. "Oi, what the hell is the dorchet affect?" He asked, glancing up at his friends. Upon seeing Sirius glare at him, he dropped his head down, and reached for his book. "Nevermind I'll look it up myself."

At the other end of the table, Alice and Lily stared squarely at Dominique.

"Ok, tell us now would you? Before Kierra wakes up and comes down here.." Alice said.

"I don't get why you don't want her to know..." Lily added.

"Because it has to do with her! Well, indirectly anyway...ok," Dominique said, glancing back at the door to make sure Kierra hadn't arrived yet, "so yesterday afternoon, when I was studying with Remus, we had a little talk"--

"Wait he's involved with this?" Lily asked. Dominique nodded. "He was acting as if he had nothing to do with this! Said you must've been sick, that's why you didn't turn up for dinner"--

Dominique shook her head. "Understandable that he lied, don't blame him much either...but yes, he's involved with this.." and Dominique proceeded to tell the girls of the conversation between Remus and herself.

"...and then I just realized, oh my gosh, he shouldn't like me, aside from the fact that I'm going out with his best friend, he should be going out with my best friend...well, one of my best friends," Dominique added with a smile. "I just thought of Kierra knowing about this, and it made me sick. She's liked him for ages, and here I go, making him fall in love with me, when I'm supposed to be helping her get him, you know? I felt like such a traitor!"

"But you didn't mean to, D!" Lily said, "You never sought his affections, had you done so, then you might be in the wrong, but you haven't done anything treacherous.."

"She's right," Alice spoke up, "you're just in one of those sticky situations where it's nobody's fault...really. Can't blame yourself...Remus could hardly help himself. You said he wasn't happy about all of this...Nor can blame be on Kierra for liking him, or for Sirius for liking you."

"So did you go to Dumbledore to talk to him about it?" Lily asked. Dominique nodded at the girls as they stared at her incredulously.

"What? He's my uncle!"

"I know! But...it's Dumbledore..." Alice said.

"What'd he say?" Lily asked.

"Oh...nothing of consequence..." Dominique answered as she thought about how Dumbledore seemed to know everything. "I just wanted someone to talk to, vent out on, that's it. Well, whenever Kierra comes around, I'm gonna make up some story...I don't think I can tell her that Remus likes me..." Alice and Lily nodded in agreement, and turned to their breakfast.

"Er, what's this?" Lily asked, pointing at a plate of small sandwiches, that seemed to be stuffed with red-orange cheese.

"Pain perdu...it's French..." Dominique answered, turning to look at the head table where the staff sat. She cast a look at Dumbledore, who was watching her with interest. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, his eyes twinkling through his half moon shaped glasses.

"Shoot, Kierra's coming!" Alice said, nudging Dominique. She turned her head back in the direction of the great hall entrance, and saw none other than Kierra, looking very groggy. She sleepily took a seat across from Dominique, her eyes half open. "Morning" she mumbled, not looking up at anyone. No one spoke for about two minutes. Finally, Lily stood up and grabbed her books. "Well, I'm heading to potions, I'll see you guys there! Come on Alice!" Lily said, throwing her a sharp look.

"But I haven't finished—oh wait," she interrupted herself when she saw Lily's look, "I have…ok, see you guys in potions then" Alice said, following Lily out of the great hall.

It wasn't until the girls had left when Kierra looked up and actually noticed that Dominique sat in front of her.

"D! Hey! What happened last night? Are you o.k?"

Dominique smiled slightly as she helped herself to some pain perdu. "Yea, I'm O.K…I…um…." 'Think, Dominique, think!' She wracked her brains trying to come up with an excuse. "well, I just….thinking…of…."

"What…thinking of what?" Kierra stared at her with wide awake eyes.

"France…" Dominique blurted out. "I was thinking of home…I was feeling homesick…I miss Paris…I kind of miss Beauxbatons…and the people there…" Well, it wasn't a complete lie…she did miss Paris, and she did miss some people from Beauxbatons….just some of her professors, not so much any of the students. She hadn't any real friends there, she had pretty much been a loner those six years she had spent there.

"Oh…I'm sorry…" Kierra said sympathetically. "I understand…you've spent so much time there…" Dominique nodded. She felt terrible for lying, but she'd feel even worse if she told Kierra the truth.

"So then you went to see Dumbledore?" Kierra asked.

"Er…yea…well, I was just feeling all depressed about it…and I wanted to talk to someone, family…but I don't have any except Dumbledore…so that's why I went to him." Dominique looked straight a Kierra, to see if she was buying it. Kierra had opened her mouth to say something, but then she looked more closely at Dominique and then closed her mouth, pursing her lips together. Dominique fidgeted nervously with her fork and knife. She did not look convinced. However, Kierra simply nodded, and started on her breakfast.

Just then, the two girls were joined by Peter, James, Remus, and Sirius, whom all took seats with them.

"Morning" Sirius said to Dominique, "How's it going?"

Dominique shrugged, determined not to look at any of the boys, especially at Remus.

"So are you gonna tell us what happened yesterday, or what?" James blurted out, immediately getting dirty looks from Remus and Sirius that said he was being insensitive.

Dominique looked up, staring straight at James, who was sitting across from her, watching her intently. She immediately looked back down. "Oh, right…well"—

"She was just homesick," Kierra answered for her.

"Homesick?" Sirius asked.

"Yea, she's been going to Beauxbatons for six years, of course she would be"—

"Hey, why don't you let her talk?" Sirius interjected, with an air of impatience.

"I am," Dominique answered. "I just miss everything about Paris, and Beauxbatons."

"Well why didn't you say anything?" Peter asked.

"I just wanted to be with family. And seeing as Dumbledore…hey wait a minute, no one ever told me how you guys knew that I was talking to him!" Dominique looked around the table, demanding for one of them to give her an explanation. Finally, Sirius let out a sigh, and opened up his school bag and pulled out a piece of battered up parchment.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He said, tapping the parchment with his wand. Suddenly, a map of Hogwarts appeared on the parchment.

Dominique stared at it. "The Marauders"—

"Yes, see here," Sirius interrupted her. "Look at the names. I'm Padfoot, Remus is Moony, Peter is Wormtail, and James is Prongs. We made this map. Anyway, it shows you everyone's movements throughout the school. Comes in handy sometimes" he said, casting a look at Dominique. But she was not staring at the map. She was staring at the names above the map. "Moony…" she said more to herself than out loud, "of course…but…" she broke off and looked at the boys, as if trying to piece a puzzle together.

"Well, mischief managed" Sirius said, tapping the map with his wand before rolling it up. "So you're ok then?" he asked, looking into Dominique's eyes. Dominique however, did not look back at him, but preferred to look at the floor when she answered "yea, I'm fine".

Just then Kierra stood up and grabbed her bag. "We're gonna be late for potions, come on." With that, the boys and Dominique followed suite, and made their way to potions.

As they made their way down the crowded corridors, Sirius and James walked close together, discussing something in low tones. Kierra had only heard Sirius say 'Snivellus' at some point, so she figured they were planning a prank of Severus Snape. She in turn, was being tailed by Peter, who kept asking her questions about the potions essay they were to turn in today.

Dominique, who was walking along side with Kierra, had noticed that Remus had lagged behind, and walked a few feet behind them. She glanced at Kierra, who was conversing with Peter, and looked back at Sirius and James, who were deep in conversation, before she slowed her pace down to let Remus catch up with her.

"Hey" she said quietly.

"You ever consider going into acting, D?" he replied just as softly.

She smiled slightly. "I don't think any of them bought it. Well, I know Kierra didn't"—

"What do you mean?"

"I could just tell, the way she looked at me. I don't think she believed me. But I don't think she'll inquire further. James and Sirius looked a bit suspicious though…"

"You didn't have to lie, you know"

"Yes I did" Dominique said, glancing at Remus. "How do you think Sirius would have reacted if I told him the truth?"

Remus looked thoroughly depressed. "I'm sorry. I never should've said anything…making you lie to all your friends like this…" Dominique said nothing to this, so Remus continued, "I should've kept my feelings to myself. And," he hesitated for a moment, "I…think I'm…getting over…well, you…"

Dominique looked up at him, but again remained silent.

"This morning, this one girl, Elaine…I don't know if you know her…well, she's in ravenclaw, our year"—

"She that part-veela girl?" Dominique interrupted.

"yea…well, I ran into her on my way to breakfast, and she asked me out, to the Hogsmead trip this Saturday."

Dominique gave him a funny look. He couldn't tell if she was upset with him for going out with Elaine, or just surprised. After a moment's stare at him, Dominique finally smiled and said "good for you" though Remus had the distinct feeling that she didn't really mean it.

James glanced back at Dominique and Remus, who were now trailing behind them several feet, before turning to Kierra and Peter.

"Oy, Kierra," she and Peter walked closer to him and Sirius to hear him, "hey about Dominique, was she really upset because of being homesick?"

Kierra glanced back at Dominique, who was talking quietly to Remus. "That's what she said to me. But I honestly don't believe that. Why would she have run off to the bathroom and cried in there for an hour, just over being homesick?"

"That's true," agreed James, "I wasn't even thinking about that. It's just that whenever she spoke, she never looked at any of us in the eye"—

"Something had to have happened to her." Kierra said. James, Kierra, and Peter all turned to Sirius to see what he thought.

He looked up thoughtfully at them. "Yea I don't think she was being honest either. She's hiding something…but we can't force her to say anything, can we? I suppose we're better off leaving her alone. Like Remus was saying, she'll come around. If she does, she'll probably tell him first."

The others nodded in agreement, as Remus and Dominique had finally caught up to them. Finally, they reached their potions class in the dungeons, a few minutes late.

Several hours later, Kierra, Lily, Alice and Dominique, sat in the Gryffindor common room, trying to get some homework done before dinner. It was quite a task to really get anything done, considering how James and Sirius were playing wizards chess nearby and were making quite a racket as they did so.

"Come on, you stupid knight! Slam that bloody pawn!" James had been shouting at one of his chess pieces.

Lily rolled her eyes as she heard a crashing noise coming from the chess board. "How are we ever going to get our homework done with those morons around here?" she said.

"You do know we've got another essay due tomorrow for Ancient Runes, don't you?" Kierra called over to James and Sirius. "Did you boys even start it?"

"Check mate!" Sirius shouted, and jumping up, pointing at James. "HAH!"

James glared at Sirius and got up as well, picking up the chessboard. "No, we didn't start it. Actually, that reminds me Kierra, can I borrow your notes for that class? I'm a bit lost and"—

"Why can't you ever take your own notes, Potter?" Kierra said, searching through her bag.

"Because Kiki, you're so much cleverer than me in that class."

"Don't give me that bull, Potter, and don't call me Kiki" Kierra muttered, "Foundem" she pulled out a notebook, and James, who looked thrilled marched right up to her. "You know," he said, turning to his friends, "Kierra is my favorite girl in the whole world!" he beamed.

"Suck up…" Remus muttered under his breath.

"Didn't I say, Nakofsky, that he was only glad you were in his class because he could borrow your notes?" Sirius said, as he plopped onto the couch next to Dominique, putting and arm around her.

"That's not true!" James said, "I love having Kierra in our class! Borrowing her notes is just a side benefit"—

"Oh that's right, I forgot, the main reason you like having her around is to get the inside scoop about Evans"—

"Black!" came the voice of not only James, but Lily. They looked at each other, both slightly embarrassed, but before James could open his mouth, Lily had stormed out of the common room.

"Sorry mate…" he said, not really looking at James, but focusing most of his attention on Dominique.

"You're really desperate, aren't you Potter? Resolving to be friendly with me, just so you could get Lily?" Kierra teased, holding out her notebook.

"Thanks" James said gruffly, as he made to take her notebook, but Kierra had snatched it out of his reach.

"What's the magic word?" she smiled at him.

"Please?" she shook her head.

"Pretty please?"

"Now, say it with the right position…" James sighed and got on his knees in front of Kierra and frowned heavily, sticking his lower lip out as far as he could. "Pretty pleeeease…?"

Kierra and the others laughed at him, as she handed the notebook back to him, she pat him on the head, ruffling his hair up. "Good boy!" she said.

"Urghh…" James got up, "Thanks a million" he said, turning to Sirius, Remus and Peter. "Wanna head down for dinner now?" he asked.

"Yea, I'm starving!" Peter said, getting up rather quickly. Just as the boys made their way to the portrait hole, James turned around and ran back to the couch where Kierra sat, and gave her a hard pull by her ponytail, causing her to yell, before he ran back to join his friends. He gave her a big, mischievous grin before the fat lady portrait swung shut.

"What an idiot" she muttered, as Dominique and Alice laughed with her while they put their books away too.

"Well, let's go find Lily. Bet she's still fuming" Alice said, as they made their way out of the common room.

Around 10 o'clock, the girls hustled around the dormitory, getting their things ready for the following school day.

"Hey D," Kierra said, as she folded up her uniform and placed it neatly on the chair by her bed.

"mmm?" Dominique looked up from the book she was reading, 'A History of the Animagus'.

"You remember what you were saying about Remus and me…getting together?"

"Uh huh?" Dominique answered without looking up from her book.

"Well….I….uh…"—

"Would you like us to work our magic for you?" she finally peered at Kierra from around her book, smiling.

Kierra sighed. "Yes…"

"We'll get to it first thing in the morning."

"But"—

"You just make sure you get up when we wake you up. Leave the rest to me."

Kierra nodded. "Well," Dominique began pulling the curtains around her bed, "Night".

The next morning, Lily was the first to get up, as usual. As she rolled out of bed, she saw Alice stirring underneath her covers.

'Better hit the bathroom before she gets to it' Lily thought, as she made her way to the loo. Alice could take forever in there.

Twenty minutes later, Lily emerged from the bathroom, adjusting her towel, and searching for her hairbrush. Just then, Alice had gotten up.

"Morning" she said, blinking her eyes a few times as she sat up in bed.

"Good morning….ah, here it is" Lily said, walking over to her nightstand.

"Hey, think we should get Kierra up? Dominique wants to start working on her today."

"Yea I think we should" came the voice of Dominique, who had just woken up. Just then, she and Alice glanced at each other, and at the same time, they rolled out of bed and raced to the bathroom. They squeezed in at the same time, but from the friction between each other, they both had pushed each other to the ground.

"owwww…" Alice groaned, holding her elbow.

"You guys are a riot sometimes…" Lily said, smiling.

"You always get the bathroom first!" Dominique whined as she pulled Alice up.

"Yea, well, it's not my fault I'm faster than you!" Alice retorted.

"No you're not"—

"Yes I am!"

"Not"—

"CHILDREN!" Lily stepped into the bathroom. "Calm down, would ya? I swear, you guys can act so immature…you remind me of myself and Petunia…when we were about this tall"—Lily said, sticking her hand out about three feet from the ground. "Alice, go shower, in the meantime Dominique, you take care of your other business."

"But"—

"No buts! Don't make me give you two detentions!" Lily scolded. As she turned away to get dressed, she could hear them both muttering to themselves.

"Wow, you whipped them into their places" came the voice of Kierra, who had just gotten up.

Lily dropped the folded skirt she was holding. "Oh my….Kierra…you're awake…"

"Of course I am…"

"You woke up by yourself…oh my gosh…" and Lily ran over to Kierra's side and threw her arms around her. "Oh, I'm so proud of you!"

"AAH cut it out Lily, it's not that spectacular!"

"Yes it is! You know that myself and Alice have been waking you up about every school day since our first year! Aw, my lil girl's all grown up"—

"yea, yea…don't push it Lily…" Kierra said, pulling herself away from Lily and getting out of bed. "Anyway, I guess it was because I'm anticipating Dominique's little plan."

"Ah yes, I wonder what she's got in store for you…ah well, we'll have to wait til she's out of the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, Alice emerged from the bathroom, followed by Dominique shortly after.

"Ok, here's the thing" Dominique said, pacing around the room as the other girls got ready, "Remus told me last night that Elaine...oh what's her last name…you know that girl in Ravenclaw, she's part veela?"

"Oooh yea, I know who you're talking about! Oh shit, what about her?" Kierra asked, her face dropping slightly.

"Well, she asked him out…for the next Hogsmead trip…"

"Oh great…" Kierra muttered.

"No…no…I don't think we should give up just like that…I mean, it's only a date…it probably won't work out too well anyway…they don't go together very well…"

"Well then, should we just wait until after they break up?"

"No…we need to get started now…" Alice and Lily nodded in agreement. "Now," Dominique was still pacing around like a military general, "We're kinda limited in what we can do for your clothes during the school day…unless…" a light bulb seemed to go off in Dominique's head. She suddenly smiled and pulled her wand out. "Perhaps we could make some alterations."

"Oh, no, don't do anything to my uniform!" Kierra said, backing away.

"Oh come off it! I've got the perfect spell"—

"Nooo, D!" But too late. Dominique had waved her wand, and slashed Kierra's skirt shorter by several inches, exposing her knees, and a few inches of her thighs.

"DOMINIQUE WHAT DID YOU DO?" Kierra bellowed.

"Very sexy…" Dominique smirked.

"Oh my gosh…oh my gosh…oh shut up you two!" turning to Alice and Lily, who were on the floor laughing. "What if Professor McGonagall notices! Or Dumbledore? HUH! I CAN GET INTO TROUBLE!"

"Just say that you uh…lost your skirt, and the only extra skirt you had was from your 4th year….and you outgrew it a little…" Dominique said coolly, sending Alice and Lily into a harder fit of giggles.

"Ugh, I'm gonna look like such an idiot!" Kierra groaned. "All by myself too! I'm the only one who's gonna be walking around with a teeny weeny skirt on! I'm gonna look so stupid!"

"Oh geez…" Dominique rolled her eyes. "If that's the problem…" she turned and waved her wand at Alice and Lily, shortening their skirts as well, in the same manner as she had done to Kierra.

"HEYY!" Lily stood up quickly, and looked down at herself. "OH MY GOD! DOMINIQUE, I AM HEAD GIRL"—

"Hey, this looks kinda cute!" Alice said, examining herself in the mirror.

"Thank you!" Dominique said, throwing her hands into the air, exasperated.

"What about you, D?" Kierra said turning to her.

"Well, if you insist…" and with that, Dominique shortened her skirt as well. "Oooh, this is kinda cool! It'll be like our signature look!" Alice said excitedly as they all examined themselves in the mirror, making the other girls laugh.

"Well?" Dominique turned to Kierra.

"Yea, ok…it does look nice…I guess I don't mind if you all are wearing it too" she smiled. "I just hope we don't get in trouble."

"Excellent! I'm glad you finally approve! Now, on to makeup"—

"But I already wear makeup! I'm not wearing more"—

"Kierra, chapstick does not count as makeup!" Lily giggled.

"Ok, sit still, let's try some stuff" Dominique said, pulling out her makeup box. As she pulled out her eyelash curler, Kierra cringed back.

"Oh my gosh, what's that?"

"An eyelash curler! It doesn't hurt!"—

"Keep that away from me! I've already got curly lashes, see?" Kierra said, pulling on her eyelids.

"Ok, ok! Yea you do…fine….stop that, you're gonna pop one of your eyes out!" Dominique exclaimed. "Ok, we'll move onto other things then…I'm not gonna make you like a hooker, don't worry!" Dominique said as she pulled out some eyeshadow. "All we're gonna do is accent your features a little, bring out your eyes a bit…" she said as she swept a light layer of shadow on. "You've got full lips too…they do not deserve chapstick"—she said as she pulled out lipgloss, making Lily and Alice giggle again.

A few minutes later, the girls made their way down to the Gryffindor common room. Kierra, who was incredibly self conscious and nervous, forced Dominique, Alice and Lily to stand around her so no one would notice her.

"Well what's the whole point of this then if you're not going to be seen?" Lily asked, trying to pull her skirt down as they reached the bottom of the steps. Just then, a whistle came from a corner of the common room, where a group of boys sat by the fireplace. All the boys who sat there were staring wide eyed at the girls, mouths open, with the exception of one; Sirius was smirking. "Morning ladies" he said, getting up and walking over to them.

"It's rude to whistle at people, you know" Dominique said in a fake, cold tone.

"Well, what am I supposed to do if I'm provoked?" he asked as he looked her up and down.

"There's something called self-control" she answered, walking away from him, leading the girls out the common room and to the great hall.

"I've got plenty of self-control" Sirius stammered as he turned back to join his friends, only to see James hanging over the back of his chair. "Lily…short skirt…"

"Prongs, mate, I think you're drooling…geez, and she says I don't have self control…" Sirius muttered as he grabbed his bag. "Come on, I'm hungry, let's get some breakfast."

Halfway through the day, Dominique's plan had not gone as they had all hoped, though it did not turn out too bad. Remus had not even looked at any of the girls, let alone Kierra, but she did manage to draw the attention of several other boys, though most of them she didn't care for.

"Ugh" Kierra shuddered after Transfiguration, as she walked out of the classroom with the girls, "Peter was looking at my ass again…sick…sick…sick…"—

"Hey, Kierra!" came a voice from behind them. All four girls turned around to see who it was. It was Kyle Williams, one of the beaters for the Gryffindor quidditch team.

"Erm…you dropped your quill on your way out, here" he said, holding out a black quill.

"Oh…thanks…" Kierra said, taking the quill and blushing.

"Well, um…see you then…" and he turned on his heel and walked away.

"What are you blushing about?" Lily asked, "He just gave you back your quill…"

"Yea…well, I never dropped my quill, see?" Kierra answered, pulling her own quill out of her bag.

"Ooooh…." Lily, Alice and Dominique said at once, before bursting into giggles.

"Oh shut up guys…" Kierra said, blushing even more.

"You know, he's pretty good looking. Aw Kierra, go with Kyle…screw Remus!" Alice said.

"Yea I bet she'd love to screw Remus" said Dominique, who yelped in pain as Kierra pinched her in the arm.

"Say it a bit louder, I think there were a few people a mile away who didn't hear you!" hissed Kierra.

"Sorry…" said Dominique, trying to suppress a laugh.

Throughout the week, the girls managed to avoid getting in trouble with authorities, though the only person they were really worried about was Professor McGonagall, who was the head of their house, and was probably the only person who had the authority to punish them for their dress, with the exception of Dumbledore, who rarely made an appearance in the Hogwarts corridors. The girls had simply decided that while in transfiguration, they'd put a sticking charms on the openings of their cloaks when they did their practical lessons and had to stand up, so their uniforms would not be revealed underneath, which worked perfectly, and Professor McGonagall never took notice of them.

By Friday afternoon, they had completely broken into their new looks and it seemed accepted by everyone. However, Kierra seemed a bit disheartened that Remus still had not taken any notice of her.

"Well, don't worry, guys are a bit thick" Dominique said kindly, "sometimes they take a while…"

"And," Lily added, "there's that Hogsmead visit tomorrow"—

"But he's going out with Elaine"—

"So?" Alice replied, "No uniform! We'll just doll you up a bit"—

"Oh damn, Alice", Dominique interrupted, "we're gonna be late for quidditch practice! James is gonna bite our heads off"—

"ALICE! DOMINIQUE! GET YOUR BUNS DOWN HERE!" came James' voice from all the way in the common room.

"Geez, his voice carries far…" Dominique said, reaching for her shorts and t-shirt and heading to the bathroom.

Alice opened the door to their dorm and stepped out in the hall. "We're coming James!" she shouted back. When she came back in, Dominique had already changed and was now digging under her bed to get her broom.

"Hey Lily, Kierra, you guys wanna come watch our practice?" Alice asked as she grabbed her own sweats to change into.

"Er…yea, ok" Lily said a bit hesitantly. Alice turned to Kierra. "yea, sure" she said.

Kierra and Lily sat lazily on the soft grass on the quidditch pitch, watching their fellow Gryffindors practice. They had been practicing for about half an hour, mostly doing warm ups, when Remus came out.

"Hey guys!" he waved to James and Sirius who were about twenty feet in the air. He looked down on the grass and saw Lily and Kierra looking at him. "Oh hey guys," he smiled. "Wanted some fresh air, mind if I sit?" he asked, pointing to the empty space by the girls.

"Not at all" Lily answered, and so he took a seat next to her.

"Ahh shit, Sirius you lout!" came Dominique's voice. Lily, Kierra, and Remus turned in the direction of the large hoops that she had been guarding. She had just pulled a grey, sweat stained t-shirt off her head. "You wanna knock me off my broomstick! This is gross!" she continued to shout at him. They shifted their gaze towards Sirius, who was now shirtless. "Why, is the sight of me too overpowering for you?" he laughed, as he flexed his muscles.

"You wish…" Dominique said, hitting his shirt back at him; she got him right in the face.

"Well, if you did fall, you know I'd catch you!" he shouted at her, though he himself was struggling not to fall off his broom from his laughing.

"I'm sure you would…" she said as she took her proper position in front of the hoops.

"What an idiot…" Lily muttered, as Sirius threw his dirty t-shirt onto the ground. Remus smiled slightly at her comment. "Yes, he's a bit..."

"full of himself?" Kierra asked.

"Yea, that's about right." Remus said.

Full of himself as he was, Sirius now had the other boys following in his lead. Frank and Kyle had both thrown their shirts off, protesting that it was too hot and humid.

James did eventually, though he was too shy at first.

"Aw look Lily, James has got some humility after all!" Kierra said, pointing at James, who was being chased around by Frank and Sirius on their brooms, trying to coax him to take it off.

"Aren't they supposed to be practicing?" Lily said, watching them critically.

"Ah well, we haven't lost a game in what…like two years?" Remus said. "I think they can afford to fool around a little…"

"Water break!" James had called out about an hour and a half into practice. They had all flown back to the ground to join Lily, Kierra and Remus and began drinking fervently from their bottles of water.

"Kierra…hey!" Dominique took a seat across from Kierra. "How do you like watching practice?"

"Good…it was good…Sirius and James are…characters…I suppose…but you guys look like you're well on your way to secure the Quidditch cup…again"

"Yea, James told me that they've had it the past four years…but that's putting quite a bit of pressure on us to keep it"

"You guys will to fine" Kierra said, giving Dominique an assuring smile.

"Thanks…" Dominique answered, watching Remus, who had just gotten up to go join his guy friends. "Ok listen" she said, turning back to Kierra. "Kyle was totally checking you out during practice"—

"He was?"

"um, yea!" Alice had just gotten away from Frank and had just sat down with the girls. "He kept looking at you every time he did a good move!"

"Really?"

"yea! And uh, when he took his shirt off," Dominique whispered, "he was checking to see if you were watching!"

"wow…I"—

"Shut up, he's coming!" hissed Lily. At once, she, Dominique and Alice moved away from Kierra, and suddenly became interested in the grass.

"Er, hey Kierra…" Kyle started.

"Hey!" why do I always turn red? Kierra yelled at herself. "You were playing really well!" she said.

"Oh, thanks…well, James is a good captain…um…I was wondering…" he looked over at the other girls who sat nearby; though none of them were watching, they all smiled. "Er, can we just take a little walk?"

"Sure" she answered. With that, Kyle pulled her up and they began to walk down the quidditch pitch.

"Hey! Nakofsky! Where the hell do you think you're taking my beater?" James called out at them. "Break's over in a minute!"

"We'll be back in a second!" Kyle yelled back, as they continued down the pitch.

"Ooh, our lil Kierra's all grown up!" Sirius said, though he only glanced at her and Kyle, and had returned to watching Dominique. At hearing this, James turned to Remus, and saw that he was watching after Kierra and Kyle.

"Oy, Moony…?" Remus snapped his head towards James, who wore a large grin.

"What?"

"You like her!"

"Who?"

"Kiki!"

"What? No I don't!"

James snorted. "What? I don't! I'm going out with Elaine, remember?" Remus said.

"Oh, right...well…"

"Prongs, he was just checking her out! Come on, I mean, with a little skirt like that…how could one not? But that doesn't mean he likes her though…" Sirius said.

"Thanks Padfoot" Remus said, though not sounding too grateful for his intervention.

"Well, what'd he say?" Lily asked eagerly when Kierra had returned with Kyle, and the others had gone off to resume practice. Kierra looked slightly startled and glanced at Remus, who was watching the practice intently.

"He asked me out". Kierra noticed in the corner of her eye that Remus had turned to look at her and Lily, only shortly, before returning his attentions to the practice.

"And…?" Lily asked.

"I said yes…so we're going to Hogsmead together"—

"Aww, that's great! But…" Lily stopped herself in midsentence when she remembered who was sitting with them. Instead, she nudged her head in Remus' direction, who didn't seem to notice.

"Oh…well…I dunno…whatever" Kierra answered. "Hey you guys were the ones who told me…" she said.

"Kierra's going out with Kyle!" Lily announced, as they got inside the castle after practice.

"Oooh, so that's why he took you aside during water break?" Alice asked, giggling.

"But what about Remus?" Dominique asked.

"Well, that's obviously not working out too well" Kierra said as they made their way to the great hall for dinner. "Maybe I should just give up on that…I mean Kyle's really nice…"

"Not to mention gorgeous" Alice interjected.

"Yea that too" Kierra laughed. "Well, we'll see how tomorrow's date goes. Maybe it won't work out".

"Yea, who knows" Lily said.

Later that night, James sat alone in the Gryffindor common room. His friends had gone off to bed, because unlike him, they had finished their homework. 'Ok, all I've got left his ancient runes…' he thought as he pulled out Kierra's notebook that he borrowed earlier from her. He pulled out a blank roll of parchment and began leafing through her notes for information to stick in his essay. All had gone well for the next half hour. Kierra's notes were very neat and organized, and she had easy to read, large handwriting. 'Very girly' he thought, as he looked at her bubbly letters, very unlike his own, 'chicken scratch' handwriting, as Sirius would call it.

Just as he was writing his concluding remarks for his essay, James quickly turned to one of her earlier notes; he needed to know the spelling for eihwaz (A/N: from OotP…I know, I'm so original…hehe…) He quickly found it, it was in the lecture notes from the previous week. Just as he was about to shut Kierra's notebook and call it a night, something in the corner of her book caught his eyes. All along the margins of almost every page, Kierra had doodles and scribbles everywhere of mostly abstract designs. However, on this particular page, in the upper right hand corner, he saw her bubbly handwriting, that was circumscribed by a heart. James pulled the notebook closer to make sure he read right; 'Remus Lupin' it was written plain as day. James broke into a large grin as he saw this. 'So she does like him' he thought, as he shut the notebook and stuck it in his school bag. But why would she go out with Kyle then? Remus had been checking her out during quidditch practice…but as Remus and Sirius both stated, checking someone out doesn't mean you like the person. 'Well, either way,' he thought, as he headed up to his dormitory, 'this makes great blackmail material!'


	8. Chapter 8: Hogsmead

Chapter 8: Hogsmead

The following morning, all of the girls managed to get up rather early, not only from the excitement of their first Hogsmead trip of the year, but because they all had dates to accompany them today.

"Oh gosh, what do I wear?" Kierra had just burst out of the bathroom, a brush stuck in her hair. "Er, what are you doing?" she asked Dominique, who was going to Kierra's dresser.

"Well, you just asked what you should wear...I'm looking at your clothes…do you have any skirts?"

"No, I told you before, I hate skirts!"

"Oh great…ok…" Dominique walked across the room to her own dresser, and started digging through it. At last, she pulled out a short khaki miniskirt and handed it to Kierra.

"Dude this thing is short! Shorter than our uniform skirts, mind you, after you altered them!"

"Duh! Hence, a miniskirt!"

"Isn't it illegal to wear skirts this short? Oh shut up guys!" Kierra snapped at Lily and Alice as they laughed at her.

"It's the latest style in Paris! Come on, try it! Look, it's even khaki...nice and preppie, just like you!" Kierra rolled her eyes at Dominique and snatched the skirt from her and headed to the bathroom. "Try it on with a white collared shirt! Not those big baggy ones you always wear, Kierra! Got something in three quarter sleeves or half?" Dominique called after her.

"Ooh, ooh, I do!" Lily jumped up and ran to her dresser. "I've got something that would look perfect with it!" she cooed, pulling out a neatly folded white shirt. "Here Kierra!" she said, handing it to her as she headed to the bathroom. Seconds later, Kierra peered her head out the door. "Uh, Lily, I think the top buttons are missing!"

"Yea I know, I pulled them off!" Lily grinned devilishly.

"Well, well, well! Miss Evans has got a naughty side"—Dominique laughed. "I've never seen you wear that, are you saving that shirt for Potter?"

"Oh shut up!" Lily said, turning beet red. Just then Kierra emerged from the bathroom, frowning. "Lily, this shirt is way too tight on me"—

"No it's not! It's supposed to be fitted! Good grief girl"—

"I dunno…and this skirt…no offense D, it's too short…"

"No! Come on, you look so cute! Don't you think Alice?"

"Hmm…" Alice got up and studied Kierra. "Missing something….ahh…" Alice got on her hands and knees and reached under her bed for a pair of heels. "Here, put these on"—

"No way! You know I hate heels! And I'm tall as it is"—

"You're not that tall, quit flattering yourself! Put them on!" Alice ordered.

"Ugh, fine…" With that, Kierra grudgingly put Alice's three inch heels on.

"Niiiice..." the other three girls said together when Kierra stood up after snapping the heels on.

Kierra blushed slightly and turned to look at herself in the full length mirror by the door. She couldn't help but like what she saw, except one thing. "Er, what about my hair? I don't like wearing it down"--

"Wear it in your normal ponytail" said Dominique, "I think it'll give you a nice little, innocent sort of look" she said with a wink, as she handed her a white scrunchie.

"I don't know about innocent...not in a skirt this short..." Kierra said, as she tied her hair into a high ponytail, causing Alice and Lily to laugh.

"Ah, perfect" Dominique exclaimed as Kierra turned to face them. "You look too cute!"

As the girls filed outside where Filch was having the students check out, they saw that their dates were already there waiting for them. Alice saw Frank immediately, and ditched the girls and went to go join him.

James ran eagerly, nearly tripping over himself, when he saw Lily come outside.

"Evans! Over here!" James shouted as he pushed a third year boy out of his way. Lily, who of course did not notice that, smiled when she saw him and waved.

"Good luck..." Kierra muttered as she, Lily and the other girls followed James to the group of boys. Sirius, though just as excited about his date with Dominique as James was with Lily, hid his glee a bit better. He simply smiled at her and said hello when she came to him, and extended his arm out for her to take.

Kierra began to worry as her friends paired off and were ready to walk to Hogsmead; where was Kyle? Just then as if on queue, he emerged from the crowd of excited students, waving at her.

"Kierra! There you are!" he said as he came over to her. "Well...shall we?" Kierra smiled and nodded and so they followed the other students down the dirt road path that led to the village of Hogsmead.

The only people amongst the group of seventh year Gryffindors who seemed dateless were Remus and Peter.

"Well, where do you guys want to go first?" asked Peter. Remus rolled his eyes and answered,

"Wormtail, can't you see they want to go with their women? You guys go ahead where ever you want. Why don't we just meet up in a few hours? Maybe around 2? So we'll have some time to chill together before going back".

"Sounds good….oi Moony, are you and Peter going on a date together? What happened to Elaine?" James raised his eyebrows at his single friends.

"Um, actually I'm going to go look for her…I told her I'd meet her at three broomsticks…."

"So our lil Lupin is going on a lil' rendevous..." Sirius said in a sugary, high pitched voice.

"Yes he is", replied Lupin, "Sorry Peter that you're flying solo today, but don't worry, maybe you'll run into Veronica again…" and the whole group burst into laughter. Veronica was a 5th year who was in love with Peter; they had been secretly going out, though it wasn't much of a secret amongst his year; they all knew about their relationship since James had caught them snogging in a broom closet.

"Er, yea, maybe I will.." and with that Peter walked away.

"So," James said in an oily voice, "this Elaine girl, is that the Ravenclaw Elaine, the half veela girl?"

"yep". Sirius and James broke into dance. "GO REMUS! GO REMUS! ITS YOUR BI"—

"I thought you were taking me out today" interrupted Dominique, pulling Sirius away by the ear.

"Ouch! Yea yea ok! Let go! I'm done!"

And with that, the couples all went their separate ways.

Being a stranger to Hogsmead, Dominique allowed Sirius to pull her through the crowds of students and navigate their way around the village. Sirius led the way into a small, but elegant sort of restaurant, called Godric Café. The two of them took their seats and ordered. After the waiter had taken their menus and they were left alone, Sirius took Dominique's hand.

"You're the most beautiful creature I've ever beheld, Dominique" She blushed and turned as red as Lily's hair. Sirius continued, "you know, if its possible, you look even cuter when you blush".

"Stop it Sirius" Dominique said, though she couldn't help smiling even more. Sirius took her hands in his, and as if on queue, soft music began to play in the background.

"Want to dance?" asked Sirius, though he didn't seem to care for her response since he got up and pulled her up as well.

"Would love to". And so they danced for the next half hour. Dominique felt like she was floating. She hardly knew this guy but he made her feel so good.

Sirius felt like he was floating. He hardly knew her, but she made him feel so good. Just then he heard Dominique sing quietly along with the music. God…she's got a nice voice, he thought.

"my heart as wings…mmm mmm mmm….and I can fly…..I'll touch every star in the sky…" (from Disney's Cinderella…lol)

she stopped singing when she realized he was watching her. "Sorry", she said, turning red, "it's a muggle song, I love it.." "no its ok, keep singing, I like your voice.." But Dominique by now felt so weak in the knees by his tenderness, that she could barely stand, let alone continue singing. Fortunately for her, the song ended, and their food was brought.

After their lunch, Sirius and Dominique went for a bit of window shopping. Just as they passed by the window of a bookstore, Dominique stopped. "Oh Sirius, I just remembered a book I needed to get. I'll take like 2 seconds, sorry."

"no don't worry about it. I'll just uh, wait here". 10 minutes later Dominique emerged from the bookstore with not one, but several bags of books. "Sorry Sirius, I got a bit carried away..I'm a nerd, I know…uh Sirius?" She looked up..he wasn't there. "DOMINIQUE!" yelled a voice from behind her. Sirius was running in her direction with a large bouquet of wild flowers.

"Sorry I ran off, I just saw them in that nearby field, thought of you.."

"Oh Sirius they're gorgeous, thank you"

"They pale beside your beauty though" and Dominque felt herself go red again.

"I think we should go meet up with the others" she said, trying to look at anything but Sirius. He really had a way with words.

In the meantime, the James' date with Lily hadn't gone as eventful as he had hoped. As they were on their way to the book shop, which Lily had expressed an interest to go to, they passed by the local Quidditch supplies shop. James was resisting the temptation to stop at the window, when he suddenly saw something that made him stop dead in his tracks.

"Oh...my...God..." he said, pressing his face against the window.

"What?" Lily asked, wondering what could render James so speechless in a Quidditch shop window.

"The Nimbus 1000...the rumour was true...Nimbus...it's a whole new line of broomsticks...I can't believe this...they'll revolutionize Quidditch..."

But Lily could not see what was so special about it. "It looks like any other broomstick to me"--

James had looked like he had been scandalized. "Like any other broomstick? Lily, you have no idea...this is like...the first in its class...I wouldn't be surprised if it replaced the Cleansweeps all together..."

"That's great James...come on..." and with great effort, she managed to drag James away from the shop window, and hauled him down the street to the book shop. Once inside, they ran into Alice, Frank, Kyle and Kierra.

"You guys! You'll never guess what I saw!" James shouted as he ran past the bookshelves to tell them.

"Yea, the new Nimbus? I know..." Kyle said. "Beauty, isn't it?" Lily looked at Kierra, who looked as bored as she was. Lily knew that Kierra wasn't particularly fond of Quidditch either.

Nearly fifteen minutes had gone by--Lily had been watching the clock--and James was still standing there with Kyle, Kierra, Alice and Frank, talking about Quidditch. He had finally moved away from the subject of the stupid new Nimbus, but now he was discussing the upcoming season, and the techniques they would practice against each house at Hogwarts.

"Look, I've got it mastered, Frank! Seriously!" James exclaimed as Frank scoffed at him. "I can do it perfectly. I'll show you guys at our next practice. Now, I've got some other moves in mind...there's this one..." and he continued on and on...talking about all of his new Quidditch moves. "Course, I can show you guys how to do it..." James said, ruffling his hair up and glancing briefly at Lily. "I just think..." 'ugh' Lily thought. James had just pulled out a struggling golden snitch from his pocket and began to play with it as he spoke, casually making tricky catches as if it were a piece of cake for him.

"James, I'm leaving."

"Yea, ok...wait, what?" James had turned around quickly to face Lily.

"Yea, I'm going...I'm really bored...and you're really boring...and still stuck on yourself...and you've got quite a big head."

"What...Evans! I don't get it! Wait"-- But Lily had just left the book shop. "I don't get it", he said, turning to his teammates, "What'd I do?"

"Mmm...maybe the snitch bothered her," Kierra said, now quite desperate to follow Lily's suite and take off as well; Kyle was beyond boring...talking about Quidditch nonstop. "Umm...listen Kyle, I think I need to cut this date short...I think I should go see Lily, is that O.K?"

"Huh? Oh...well...ok, if you'd like...Why don't we meet up later…at Madam Pudifoots..let's say…3 o'clock?" he said.

"Sure..." and with that, Kierra was about to turn to leave, but Kyle had pulled her into his arms and gave her a kiss.

"Bye then" he whispered as their lips parted.

"Right...bye..." Kierra stammered as she left.

Dominique and Sirius had finally reached the Hog's head. Once inside, they saw that James was already in there, but Lily wasn't with him.

"Oi mate, where'd your date go?" Sirius asked, as he took a seat across from his friend.

"uhh..she ditched me…"

"geez James! What'd you do?"

"Well, when we were in the Quidditch shop, I ran into Frank, Alice, Tyler (A/N: ah, the other chaser I forgot to mention...lol sorry), Kyle, you know, all of them…anyway we got talking about quidditch, and Lily got all mad at me saying I have a big head, and she just left me".

"What about quidditch were you talking about?"

"uhhh…I was telling them about some of my new seeker techniques".

"Were you doing your hair thing?"

"yea, so?"

"you didn't bring along your stupid snitch, did you?"

"er…"

"James you're an idiot", Sirius laughed. Dominique sat down as well next to Sirius, and looked squarely at James.

"Look James, I'm friends with Lily, I know what she wants from a guy…and she definitely doesn't want that".

"Well, what does she want then?"

"She wants…well, most women want, for a guy to be considerate, caring, and sensitive to the girl, you know? She's not a huge quidditch fan, so you should stay off the topic with her. And no offence James, but your manners could use some refinement…"

"What are you talking about?" James exclaimed as he let out a huge belch. "I've got excellent manners! "

"Ew that was gross..see things like these…ok you know what James, you are sooo close to getting her, I feel a bit of pity for you…I'll help you, ok? I'll give you lessons in manners and stuff so you can impress Lily, ok?"

"You'd do that for me?"

"sure, besides I think you guys look cute together". Just then Remus swaggered in, having a very dazed look on him.

"Remus are you ok?" James asked at once.

"Oh yea he's ok…" said Dominique. She went up to him and examined him. "Ruffled hair, smells like a woman, has strands of long silver blond hair on his shirt, which by the way is on inside out…gee, I wonder what this can all mean..."

"Is our Moony drunk?" Sirius asked, leaning in to smell his friend. "Oh, good gosh!" Sirius exclaimed, backing away., holding his nose.

"Er, yea...I think..Elaine...took advantage of me..." Remus said in a slurring manner.

Just then, Kierra walked in alone.

"Hey what happened to Kyle?" Dominique asked.

"Eh...he was busy talking about Quidditch, so I ditched him..."

"You too?"

"Yea...well, I take it then that James has told you why Lily's not with him?" Kierra asked, as she took the only empty seat left, by Remus.

"Yep"

"Girls are so weird" James muttered as he sipped on his firewhiskey.

"yea well, guys are dull" Kierra retorted just as glumly.

"Ok, sorry to cut this short, but D and I are gonna head on out...We're going to Honeydukes. So we'll just see you guys later" Sirius said, as he and Dominique got up. They all said their byes, leaving James, Kierra and Remus sitting at the dirty table in Hog's Head.

"Oy, Elaine!" Remus said, who looked slightly more alert. James and Kierra looked towards the door, but no one was there. They both turned back to Remus, to see that he was looking (though not quite focused) at Kierra. "So glad you're here, love..." he said, putting an arm around Kierra.

"Er, Remus..." Kierra stammered nervously. Just as Kierra turned her head away from him to look at James, Remus planted a kiss on the side of her neck. "mmm, you smell niiiice..." Remus said in a muffled voice, as he had barely removed his mouth from her. Finally Kierra backed away. "I'm Kierra..." she said slowly to Remus. After a moment's staring, it seemed to register in him, but he didn't look too abashed. "Oh..sorry about that" he said, getting up, teetering as he did so. "Well, I better go find Eleanor..."

"Elaine..." Kierra corrected him.

"Right-ooo..." he said, as he staggered out the door.

James and Kierra stared after him for a moment, and looked through the dirty windows of the bar to make sure he got out o.k. Just his luck, he ran right into Elaine, and she began to lead him off down the street.

"Well then..." Kierra said, turning back to James, who was giving her that stupid grin he always gave when he was feeling smug about something. "Yea, Potter?" she asked testily.

"Bet you liked that..." he said, smirking. Kierra was very tempted to smack that smirk off his face, it was that annoying.

"Liked what? Being mistaken for Elaine and then getting my neck slobbered on?"

"Yea...that's about it..."

"Fraid not, James." Kierra said, getting up and leaving. James followed her outside.

"Oh come on Kierra, you totally like him...and you loved it when he kissed you...even if he didn't realize it was you..."

"No I didn't"

"Oh yea, well why'd you turn pink then?"

Damn it, Kierra thought. "Well, I just got a little embarrassed...I mean, getting kissed like that...so randomly...so what if I blushed? I would've if anyone had done that."

"Really?" James was still grinning. Then, without warning he grabbed Kierra and pulled her up to him and gave her a long kiss. It only took a couple of seconds for Kierra to pull him away and stare at him. "Wow, poor Lily, she's missing out..."

James was still smiling. "Weren't blushing there, Nakofsky…"

"That was different…it was..."

"How?"

"Well...for one thing...it...was...well..."

"Uh huh..."

"Oh sod off Potter!" Kierra exclaimed as she stormed off to meet Kyle early.

"Pass the message on to Lily that she's missing out, will ya!" James shouted after her.

It was nearly dusk when the students came back from Hogwarts and began infiltrating the Great Hall for dinner.

"I'm starving!" Peter announced.

"How? You ate like your entire bag of candy from Honeydukes, wormtail…" Remus said.

"I did too, and I'm hungry as well!" James announced, as they took their seats. "Hey, where's Padfoot? He's not still with Dominique, is he?" James asked, looking around the great hall. Sure enough, Sirius and Dominique had just strolled into the hall, arm in arm. The boys watched as they stopped at the entrance to talk, Sirius pulling Dominique away from the door so they weren't blocking the entrance for the students. They all 'ooed' when Sirius leaned in to kiss her, but then they turned away in disgust when it became apparent that Sirius and Dominique were glued by the lips.

"Let's just start without him, shall we?" Remus said, who had now sobered up.

"I had a wonderful time, Sirius" Dominique said as she and Sirius walked towards the great hall.

"Me too" he answered. "Hey, want to sit with me for dinner?" he asked as they got into the great hall.

"Er…I have to have dinner with the girls…sorry…" Dominique answered, coloring slightly.

"No it's ok…I suppose you all like to do your 'kiss and tell' thing over dinner, huh?" Sirius grinned.

Dominique laughed and turned to go, "yea…that's exactly what we do…well, I'll see you"—

"Wait, you won't have anything to tell them if you haven't been kissed" Sirius said, pulling her back into his embrace.

"mmm…you're right, Black"—

Sirius cut her off as he pressed his lips onto hers. He could hear someone in the distance (probably James) hooting in the background, but the noise around him quickly drowned out. Right now, the universe was centered around this kiss. He pressed harder against her mouth; it was sweet, like a fresh fruit that he wanted to bite into. Lust taking over him, Sirius opened his mouth a bit wider so as to let his tongue out. Just as he did so and his tongue brushed against her mouth, Dominique pulled away from him, leaving Sirius with his tongue sticking out at her. Coming back to his senses, he quickly flicked his tongue back in and pursed his lips, curling the lower lip out slightly in a frown.

Sirius observed Dominique with his piercing gray eyes, that to Dominique, seemed to penetrate right through her. She looked at the floor for about half a second, but once again looked back at him and smiled weakly as she slowly backed away from him. "Thanks again…see you Sirius" she said in an almost whisper as she turned to join her friends, leaving Sirius standing alone by the great hall entrance, with some thoughts to reflect on.

Seven courses and three slices of pie later, the boys sat lethargically on the comfy chairs by the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.

"Stuffed…as always…" James said mournfully as he pat his stomach.

"I know…" Peter moaned.

"And yet you'll be hungry again in a few hours" Remus said, "I don't get it…you guys seem to have endless pits for stomachs or something…"

"Isn't that the truth" Sirius said. Just then, the portrait hole opened, and Kyle, Kierra and Lily walked in, shortly followed by Alice, Frank, and Dominique.

Alice and Frank went into a corner of the common room for their own private time, while Lily and Dominique immediately headed for the couch that sat a few feet away from the boys, all the while Kierra continued to walk to the staircase that led to the boys' dormitory with Kyle.

"Well, I'm gonna hit the sack early, Kierra. I'm a bit tired out."

"Yea, I am too…well, I had fun today."

"Me too…let's do this again sometime?" Kyle asked, taking her hands.

"I'd love to" Kierra smiled at Kyle. "Well, night then."

"Good night" and with that, Kyle planted a kiss on her lips, long enough for most of the students to take notice and start watching, before heading upstairs.

As Kierra headed towards the couch to join Lily, she was stopped by a growling noise behind her. It was James.

"That was one hot kiss, Kiki" he said, laughing.

"Oh shut it James…" Kierra muttered as she plopped onto the couch and lay her head in Lily's lap. "I am never wearing heels again…my feet are so sore…"

"Bet it wasn't as hot as the kiss Remus gave you, eh?" James continued.

Lily and Dominique immediately looked at Kierra, while Sirius looked up at Remus, who was looking at James. Alice and Frank also managed to unglue their lips to ogle at Remus.

"Shut up James" Kierra and Remus said together, causing him to laugh.

"You guys kissed?" Sirius asked Remus almost indignantly. "Geez Moony, two women in one day…"

"Well…it was a bit of an accident…" Remus started, clearly embarrassed.

"He thought I was Elaine" Kierra said in a muffled voice. She had turned her head and buried her face in Lily's lap, determined not to show her or Dominique how red she had gone.

"How'd you manage that?" Lily asked.

"Oh he was quite drunk…" Dominique said, giggling.

"Remus? Drunk?" Lily exclaimed "But…you're a prefect!"

"Yea…well…" Remus stammered. "It was Elaine...she insisted..."

"Yea, blame it on Elaine..." James laughed. "Took advantage of our poor lilttle Moony, she did..."

Remus coloured slightly at the attention he was being given, but sighed innocently. "I felt so cheap..."

Just then Kierra let out a loud groan as she stretched her legs out on the couch and turned so she lay on her back.

"Kierra, why don't you go upstairs if you're so tired?" Lily asked, stroking Kierra's head.

"Idonwanoo" Kierra mumbled as she closed her eyes and kicked Alice's heels off, "you make a nice pillow Lilyyy…OWW!" James had just walked over to the couch and dropped himself on it, right on Kierra's knees.

"Hey Evans, wanna skive off that prefects meeting tomorrow? We could spend some more time together..." James asked Lily quite casually.

Lily in turn, looked as if she would smack him. "Oh, that sounds lovely…" she answered, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Get off my knees, Potter!" Kierra shouted.

"Not now, Kierra" James said. "Lily, come on now, I was joking abut the skiving"— But Lily had gotten up ("Lily! My pillow!" whined Kierra…) and headed up to the girls dormitory.

"Thanks a lot Potter, you've lost me my pillow…now go take her place" Kierra ordered. James however, remained on Kierra's knees, in deep thought.

"Ugh, nevermind…Dominique…?" Kierra lifted her head slightly at Dominique, who smiled, scooted down the couch and let Kierra rest her head on her lap.

Just then, Sirius, Peter and Remus came over to the couch where the others sat. Sirius immediately took Dominique's old spot and sat next to her, putting an arm around her, while Peter sat on the edge of the couch, trying very hard to balance himself on it. With no room left, Remus sat himself on the floor on James' side.

"Hey there's room here!" James said, pointing to either side of him, both which were being occupied by Kierra's body.

"I'll pass, thanks…" Remus replied.

"Oh, why not? She's really comfy, see?" and James began to bounce up and down on Kierra's knees.

"Potter!" Kierra whined.

"You take a great deal of pleasure in tormenting her, don't you?" Dominique asked. To this, James only grinned.

"You see, James only hassles the people he loves. The more he tortures you, the more he loves you" Sirius explained.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Padfoot!" James said.

"Well, you must really love Lily then…" Dominique muttered ("hey!" James exclaimed).

"Well if that's the case, I'm dead scared to know how James feels for Snape." Remus said, causing the group to fall into laughter.

About twenty minutes later, both Peter and Sirius had retired to bed, shortly followed by James ("aah my knees…" muttered Kierra) Dominique and Kierra on the couch, and Remus still on the floor, who was now deeply immersed in one of his books.

"Kierra, I'm fagged, I think I'm gonna call it a night." Dominique said, carefully getting up as to not disturb Kierra's head. As she finally stood up and gave an extravagant yawn, Dominique looked at Kierra and stopped suddenly. "Kierra…is that…a hickey?" she asked, pointing to a small nick in Kierra's neck.

"Er…"

"Oh my gosh…from Kyle?"

"No from Sirius, D" Kierra said sarcastically, with a grin.

"Haha, very funny…well, you've got to tell us about it first thing in the morning, ok? Cuz I'm dead tired right now…" Dominique said, letting out another yawn.

"Yea ok…" Kierra said, now folding her arms under her head to use as a pillow.

"Night guys" and with that, Dominique headed up the stairs.

"Hey Kierra?" Remus finally said after several minutes of silence.

"Mmm?" Kierra turned over to lay on her back again to see Remus.

"Um…I'm sorry about earlier today…I feel…incredibly stupid for doing that"—

Kierra smiled slightly. "Don't worry about it…you didn't mean it…we all do stupid things every now and then…" then she added thoughtfully, "well, some of us more than others…"

Remus smiled back. "Well, I think I'm gonna go to bed. See you in the morning" he said. Kierra murmured a goodnight and closed her eyes while Remus got up. As he did so, his eyes fell on her legs. The were long and tanned by the hot afternoon sun. His eyes traveled upward to her short skirt, up her torso, where several of the buttons on her white shirt had come off, allowing the lace of her bra to peak out from underneath her shirt. His gaze shifted upward once again, only to meet Kierra's eyes, which were now wide open, and locked in Remus' eyes.

"Uh…" Remus stammered..."Er…are you just going to sleep down here? I'll get you a blanket if you are…" he said quickly.

"No…no…don't worry about it…I…um…I'll be going upstairs in a bit…" she stammered.

"Alright…goodnight then." Remus said as he quickly retreated up the stairs.

As Kierra got up and made a grab for Alice's heels, she could feel shivers running up and down her body. The way he had looked at her when he thought her eyes were closed…Kierra let out a small sigh as she headed up to the girls dormitory. They had a lot to talk about in the morning.

Add to Favorites


	9. Chapter 9: Kiss and Tell

Chapter 9: Kiss and Tell

"Mr. Potter?"

"damnit.." James muttered to himself. He had been caught. Professor Keifer curled his lips into a frown.

"Accio"

The scrap piece of parchment that lay on James' desk flew to the front of the classroom and landed in Professor Keifer's hands. "Now," he said, unfolding the parchment, "Let's see what Mr. Potter has been writing...shall we read this out loud?"

"Oh no sir...I don't think that's"-- But Professor Keifer held up his hand at James to silence him.

"Oh...this looks like a dialogue between Mr. Potter and Mr. Black! Well, well...I've got the perfect idea...why don't you two step up to the front of the class?" he said, as more of an order than a request.

Sirius and James looked at each other momentarily before walking to the front of the class.

"Alright boys, you two are known to be the comics of your year...why don't you two humor us and read your notes out loud to the class...put on a little show for us, eh?" Professor Keifer smiled slightly and handed the paper back to James, who held it out to Sirius so they could read together.

"Well, go on boys!" Keifer said, standing over them.

Sirius cleared his throat uncomfortably and looked at the parchment. "This class is such a waste of time...the only thing that keeps this class interesting is knowing that Dominique's sitting behind me, probably checking me out" Sirius muttered, as he heard everyone in the class burst into laughter, except Dominique.

"And Potter..?" Professor Keifer said.

James bit his lip and glanced down at the parchment. "Sorry mate, she isn't...I just checked for you...She's passing notes with Kierra right now...and she just glared at me...there goes all your reasons for taking this class..." Once again the class fell into laughter, but Professor Keifer now looked at Kierra and Dominique. "Hand it over." he said.

Kierra pulled out a piece of parchment from underneath her notebook, and handed it to Professor Keifer, all while glaring at James and Sirius.

"Well, we'll see if we have time to go through this one...carry on, Mr. Black..?" Professor Keifer smirked and had walked back to the front of the class and stood behind Sirius and James.

"umm..." Sirius looked back down at the parchment, "well...I'll bet you she's writing about me..." Sirius stammered, looking back at Professor Keifer, who only nodded at him to continue. "Anyway...something I don't get...yesterday...after our date...when I kissed her...she actually backed away from me, like she was scared or something...Can you believe it? I mean, we're talking about me here...I don't get it...maybe she just couldn't handle all my charms..."

"I'm sure that's it, Padfoot..." James read, "Listen, I need to figure out a way...to get...back with Lily...I got to go out with her on one date...and I blew it...I am such a moron..."

"Well," Sirius said, folding up the parchment and ripping it. "That's where you caught us. Happy now?" Professor Keifer only smiled.

"Well, take a seat boys...now, Miss Nakofsky, Miss Fiore...why don't you two come up now? We've got a good two minutes before class ends, I daresay we'll be able to fit you guys in as well..." He said as he handed them back their note. "Now, let's see if you two were indeed writing about Mr. Black, as he hypothesized."

Dominique threw a glare at Professor Keifer as she unfolded the note. "Kierra," she started in an icy tone, "you've got to tell me about yesterday...I can't believe you got kissed by two guys in one day..." This time, nobody laughed, but rather, many of the students straighened up in their seats and perked up their ears, including Kyle, who looked a bit startled.

"Three, actually..." Kierra read, in an almost whisper. The whole class fell into excited murmurs. "Well you know there was the one with Remus...and then with Kyle of course...and then there was James..."

Several students let out gasps, but none so loud as the ones Lily and Kyle gave.

"Continue, Miss Nakofsky..." Professor Keifer said, smirking more than ever now. Kierra gulped and looked back down at her piece of parchment, but then turned around to face Professor Keifer.

"No.."

"What did you say to me, girl?" One of the veins in Professor Keifer's forehead seemed to bulge out slightly.

"I said no...I won't continue..." and with that, Kierra ripped her note into halves, quarters, and then eighths, before tossing the shreds onto the floor. The class stared in awe as she did so. No one had ever seen Kierra stand up to anyone, let alone a professor...let alone Professor Keifer.

Fighting back tears, Kierra marched to her desk and grabbed her things. Just as she stormed out of the class, Professor Keifer called after her; "You'll be serving detention with me, Miss Nakofsky, every night this week at 7 o'clock!"

"Fine!" Kierra shouted as she slammed the door behind her.

"What a slut..." Bellatrix Black muttered under her breath.

The class stared at the door but then immediately shifted their stares to Professor Keifer and continued to look at him for several seconds. "Well," he said finally, "Miss Fiore, Mr. Black, and Mr. Potter, of course, you all will be serving detention with her tomorrow as well." Moments later the bell rang to dismiss them.

"I can't believe she kissed him!" Lily shouted. She was pacing around the girls' dormitory. Alice and Dominique sat on her bed, looking anxious.

"Listen Lily, Kierra never finished that note. There was more...she just didn't read it, remember? I'm sure she's got an explanation...just don't blow up at Kierra until you hear her out, ok?" Dominique said.

"Yea, ok...she better have a good reason"--

"Wait a minute Lily," Alice interjected, "Why are you so pissed? I thought you were through with James...you said that first date went horribly and you won't go out with him again...and you called him an idiot! You shouldn't care then if he kissed someone else..."

"Well...I don't! I just...I mean..." Lily stammered. She could feel herself going pink. She hated it when she was speechless.

"You like him!" Alice screamed, jumping off the bed. "You're pissed because you like him! You care about him!"

"No I don't!" Lily could feel herself getting redder by the second.

"Oh, you so do!" Dominique squealed, getting off the bed as well. "Awww...and you're mad that you don't have James all for yourself"--

"SHUT UP GUYS!" Lily shouted. And they shut up, though the couldn't stop smiling. Just then, Kierra came into the dorm; she was out of breath.

"Guys! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" she huffed, "Guys...Lily...listen to me, I didn't kiss James...he kissed me"--

"See!" Alice exclaimed, "she never would've done that to you Lily.."

"Look, let me explain to you guys the whole thing." Kierra interrupted. Lily exchanged looks with Dominique and Kierra before they all sat back down on Lily's bed to hear Kierra out.

"Alright," she began, "so you know how Remus had kissed me...because he thought I was Elaine?" The girls nodded. "Well..I got really embarassed and started blushing...and James noticed...so when Remus had gone, James confronted me and started taunting me about it...saying that I enjoyed it and stuff and that I like Remus..."

"Woah, he knows..?" Alice asked.

"Yea..either that or he just has really high suspicions...I denied it though...and said that I would've blushed if anyone kissed me in circumstances like those, you know?" The girls nodded in understanding once again.

"Well, just to disprove me...James kissed me, just to see if I would blush...which I didn't...and he pointed that out...only to further prove his point that I like Remus...sooo...that's the whole story..." Kierra said, looking at the girls anxiously, hoping that they would believe her, and at long last they did.

"Well...James is an idiot...but I'm glad to know that neither of you had...other intentions..." Lily said.

"Yea..well...glad we've got that settled now..." Dominque said.

"Wait...there's something else.." Alice said, turning to Dominique, "about Sirius' and James' note...when they were talking about you two kissing...what was that about...?"

"Oohh...right...that..." Dominique said nervously. She looked at her friends who were now watching her with anticipation. She could tell them. She trusted them, and they'd understand. "Ok, so that stuff that Sirius said in the note, he was right, I pulled away from him and everything"--

"Because you were scared?" Kierra asked.

"What's the big deal?" Lily said, "I mean, it was your first with him, wasn't it? Of course you'd be nervous..."

"Well...yea...I guess...but...ok, there's something I have to tell you guys...but promise me you won't breathe a word to anyone?" Domnique said. The three girls made their promises and agreed.

"Ok, well...last year, at Beauxbatons...I was going out with this one guy, named Kyle...anyway, on the last day of school...he sort of...made me...do it...with him..." Dominique had said the last few words so quietly they were barely audible.

"He raped you?" Kierra said so loudly that Lily and Alice turned to her and gave her harsh glares. "Sorry...just shocked.." she said apologetically to Dominique.

"It's ok..."

"So he just...did it...like that?"-- Lily stammered. The girls were looking a Dominique questioningly.

"Look, I don't want to go into the details of it...I just wanted to tell you that's what happened to me, that's all..." Dominique snapped, suddenly annoyed that they were all gaping at her.

"Sorry...yea that's ok...whatever you want.." Alice said quickly.

"Did you tell anyone about it?" inquired Lily.

"Well...just Remus...and Dumbledore"--

"Dumbledore knows?" exclaimed Kierra.

"Of course...I had to tell him...he can see right through me, you know...anyway he's the one who got it out of me..."

"He knew something was wrong when you came here?" asked Alice.

"Yea...he can sense those things...plus I think he knows legilimacy...so it wouldn't be that hard for him to figure those things out..." Dominique answered.

The girls nodded again. "So...this whole thing..." Lily said slowly, "affected you...with Sirius...?"

"Yea..." Dominique nodded, "It's just the way he kissed me too...it was so...I dunno...he did it...forcefully...it reminded me of Kyle..." Dominique cringed slightly at the memory of him.

"Aww..it's ok Dominique..." Alice said, putting a comforting arm around Dominique. "Just give yourself some time. And despite whatever any of us ever say about him, deep down, Sirius is a really good guy, and I don't think he'd ever try to hurt you" she smiled at Dominique.

"yea...I hate to admit it, but she's right" Lily grumbled.

"Well, good as he may be...I still can't believe he thought I was writing about him" Dominique said, raising her voice upon remembering her anger. "I mean, does he think that my world revolves around him or something?"

"Look, we said he was nice, not smart" Kierra said.

"You're awfully quiet, Moony" James said as he helped himself to some more chicken.

"Oh..." Remus said, as he was picking at his food.

"So, you going to tell us why you kissed Kierra?" a voice said behind them. They turned around to see Sirius, who swung a leg over the bench and joined them for dinner.

"Ohhh that...right..." James laughed. "Well...you know how Moony here snogged her?" He, Sirius and Peter broke into laughter, while Remus glared at them.

"Sorry mate...but you got what you deserved...when you choose to drink...you've got to be responsible..." James said through his laughs. (a/n: a lesson for us all, right? wink...)

"So what does this have to do with you kissing her?" Remus said testily.

"Oh right...well, when you kissed her, I noticed that she blushed," Remus looked up at James so quickly that his neck cricked. "Anyway, I pointed that out to her and started taunting her about liking you, and she kept denying it..she made the excuse that she was embarassed and that she would've blushed if anyone had done that...so..."

"You kissed her to disprove her?" Sirius finished for him.

"Yep!" James said happily. "And she didn't blush a jot! So Remus, while she is dating Kyle, I daresay that she's got the hots for you"--

"Wow...Dominique would never forgive me if I went and kissed someone for that...wow you've really screwed over a lot of people, Prongs."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, Lily seemed quite peeved in potions today, and of course Kyle was pissed at you too...for kissing his girlfriend and all...I bet he'll break up with her...then I imagine Kierra would be pissed at you if that happened..."

"Ohhh shit I've really messed up now..." James moaned.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at his despaired friend but then glanced over to see Dominique getting up to leave. "Later, boys" and Sirius strode off to catch up with Dominique.

"Dominique! Love!"

But Dominique only cast a glare at him and passed right by him. "Dominique!" Sirius grabbed her wrist and pulled her around to face him. "Playing a little hard to get, are we?" he grinned devilishly at her.

Dominique rolled her eyes and writhed free from his grip. "Right, Sirius...because I obviously have nothing better to do with myself than to sit around and fantasize about you, you know, since my world revolves around you! If you'll excuse me, I'm just going to go and write a book about you now.." she said nastily as she turned on her heel to leave.

"Wow, you've screwed up as much as I have, Padfoot!" James had come up behind Sirius and was grinning.

Kierra was finishing up her dinner when she saw Kyle pass right by her, glaring furiously at her as he did so. Kierra immediately threw her napkin onto the table and frantically grabbed her things.

"Kierra," Alice said, "where are you"-

"I needa talk to Kyle, see you guys!" Kierra shouted as she sprinted out the great hall.

"Kyle, wait! KYLE!" Kierra panted as she finally caught up with him. 'I am sooo out of shape...' she thought. "Kyle listen, I know you must be hating me right now...and you've got every reason to...but please...hear me out...it's not as horrible as it sounds"-

"Yea, I'm sure...I mean, you only went and snogged three guys in one day...THREE GUYS IN ONE DAY, KIERRA! AND..." he said, his face now red, "we were on a date too that day!"

"I know, I know! But please Kyle, let me explain. I swear, you can break up with me and say whatever you want to me, but listen to me first, please?" she pleaded.

"Fine..." Kyle said, as crossed his arms over his chest.

As Remus drained the remainder of his pumpkin juice from his goblet, he looked over at Kierra's now vacant seat, when suddenly something dawned upon him. He could hear Dominique taunting him in his head about some girl liking him...some girl who really deserved him, it was from the conversation they had what seemed ages ago. Dominique had to have been talking abou Kierra...If she and James were right about Kierra liking him...and if Kyle did break up with her...maybe...

"Hey I've got to go do something Peter, I'll see you!" Remus said as he dashed out of the great hall. 'I could comfort her...' he thought he as sprinted up the stairs, two at a time. 'maybe...ask her out...' he thought as he reached the portrait hole. 'well, it's now or never...stay calm...be cool...' "Carmina Burana..." Remus said nervously, as the portrait hole swung open.

Remus quickly stepped through, determined to say what was on his mind, but stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the entrance of the common room. There was Kierra, crying softly in Kyle's arms.

"I'm sorry..." she muttered.

"I told you, stop apologizing...I still want you to be my girlfriend..." Kyle said, running his hands down her back.

Kierra sniffed and smiled at Kyle. "I still want to be your girlfriend too..." she said. Kyle smiled back at her and hugged her, kissing her on the cheek.

There seemed to be a permanent sticking charm on the carpet. Remus couldn't seem to move his feet. They were just grounded into the floor.

"Oh! Remus...hey..." Kierra said, slightly startled, she had pulled away from Kyle.

"Hey!" Remus said a little too brightly, "I...uh...heard you were mad," he said looking at Kyle, "I was going to tell you not to blame Kierra...but uh...you guys seem o.k...glad to see that..."

"thanks man" Kyle said, then turning back to Kierra he said "Well, I'm going to go finish my transfiguration homework, I'll see you in the morning, alright?"

"Ok...good night Kyle"

"Good night Kierra" he said, pulling her in for another kiss. It seemed to Remus that Kyle had made that kiss extra long as to show Remus who Kierra belonged to. Sure enough, as Kyle retreated up the stairs, he looked over his shoulder and gave Remus a look that automatically confirmed his thoughts.

"Well, it's official," Sirius had just entered the common room with James. "Dominique is mad at me..."

"Yea, well, she's got reason to, hasn't she?" Kierra said, smiling.

"You look awfully smug for someone who's got an angry boyfriend..." Jame said as he grabbed a first year by the collar and pushed him out of his usual seat by the fire.

"He's not angry at me though...I just talked to him and explained everything..." Kierra replied.

"Well, good for you" James said, "So that's two less people I've screwed over by kissing you...alright, all I have left to worry about now is Lily..."

Kierra and Dominique sat silently in Professor Keifer's classroom, who was pacing around slowly. Suddenly, the door flew open and Sirius and James appeared. "Sorry Sir!" James said quickly, "Peeves you know...he"-

"I don't want to hear your excuses, Mr. Potter, take a seat." Professor Keifer said in a stony voice. Sirius shrugged and took the seat next to Dominique and smiled weakly at her, and she in return, only glared at him, while James took the seat next to Sirius, looking excited.

"So, what are you going to have us do, sir?" James asked eagerly.

"You four will be cleaning up the classroom, without magic. I want every last cauldron cleaned up as well as all the spills that are on the counters and on the floor...and as you can see, this will be quite a task, considering that the first years are my last class of the day" Professor Keifer smiled evilly. "When I return, I want to find this room spotless, understand?"

"yes sir" the four said in unision.

Within minutes, they were all hard at work, scrubbing dirty cauldrons.

"Dominique," Sirius began, as he passed her a sponge, "look, I'm sorry about that whole note...I was just kidding you know...I know your life doesn't revolve around me..."

"uh huh..." Domnique said dully, not looking up from her work.

"Really...I know it doesn't...even though I think my world revolves around you..." he said slowly. Dominique glanced at him momentarily; her expression had softened slightly, but then she returned to scrubbing her cauldron. "I doubt it..."

"Really, it does...I think about you all the time, D..."

"I'm sure you do..."

"You don't believe me?"

"Not really...I'm inclined to think that you're just saying that so I won't be mad at you..."

"Well then...Hey, James, come here.." Sirius called over to James, who was on the floor scrubbing off green stains from the stone floor.

"What's up?" James asked.

"Dominique thinks that I never think about her"-

James started to snicker.

"What?" Dominique demanded.

"Are you aware that Sirius spends half his meal times staring at you...because he likes to watch you eat...?" James said, now laughing even harder. "Yea..." he nodded at Dominique, who had raised her eyebrows at him, "and he just loves to watch you chat with your friends over dinner...and watch you giggle...apparently he finds it cute..." James said, with a tone of disdain.

"What's so funny about that"- Sirius began, but James continued.

"And...whenever you guys are together and you leave...he gazes off into space for like a full five minutes before transitioning back into our world..." James said, grinning.

"THANK YOU, JAMES!" Sirius said, pushing James away, "Go back to work..." Sirius turned back to Dominique. "He exagerates a lot, you know.." he said sheepishly.

"No I don't!" James said, as he squatted back down to the floor to continue scrubbing.

At long last, Dominique smiled at Sirius. "You are too cute for words..." she said, as she returned to work.

Two and a half hours later, the potions classroom was spotless. After Professor Keifer examined the bottoms of every cauldron and seemed satisfied, he dismissed them. "You, Miss Nakofky, will be returning the rest of the week of course, don't you forget that." he said.

"Don't worry, I won't" she said, as she followed Sirius, Dominique and James out of the classroom.

As the four of them headed back to the Gryffindor common room, Dominique and Sirius walked several feet in front of James and Kierra, holding hands and talking quietly, while smiling shyly at each other every now and then.

"They're so cute" Kierra said to James, as they trudged behind the couple.

"Yea...whatever..." James said, as they went through the portrait hole. "They're so lovey dovey...ugh..." As Kierra sighed happily, James was reminded of something he kept in his bag. "Oy, Kierra, I just remembered, I've got your notebook from runes..." he said as he began digging through his bag. Dominique had just gone up to the girls' dormitory, while Sirius had retreated up to the boys', leaving James and Kierra alone. Just then, James pulled out a tattered notebook from his bag.

"gee Potter, thanks for taking such good care of it..." Kierra said sarcastically as she took her notebook back and shoved it into her own bag.

"And thank you, Kierra, for taking such good notes!" James replied, as he stalked up the steps to go to the boys' dorm. When he reached the top of the stairs, James turned around and spoke up again. "By the way, Remus' middle name is John..."

Kierra's eyes shot up at James, who stared back at her with his hazel eyes, with much amusement.

"Ok..." she said uncertainly.

"I just thought you should know...so next time you draw little hearts around his name, you could include that part of his name in there..." James replied with a grin. And with that, he disappeared into the boys' dorm, leaving Kierra alone in the common room, quite startled.


	10. Chapter 10: Meet Megan

Chapter 10: Meet Megan

Kierra poked listlessly at her lunch. She was quite tired from last night's detention, and having to sleep on James' constant taunting about Remus didn't help either. Quite the contrary, she spent a good deal of the night lying awake in her bed, thinking about James. He had been making fun of her about liking Remus all year…but never in front of Remus himself; he always did it when no one was around. Why was he showing her so much consideration?

But what stumped Kierra the most was the fact that she kept denying that she liked him. Why was she doing it? She had told her friends that she liked him… 'because I can trust them…' Kierra thought, as she jabbed her fork into her scrambled eggs, 'but James is my friend too….I should be able to trust him….' And yet she couldn't let herself. He was friends with Remus. But Dominique was friends with Remus and Kierra had no problem with her knowing about her crush.

And then of course, the memory of Remus staring at her was not soon to be forgotten. Kierra always felt a pleasurable squirm in her stomach when she thought of that incident. Was he just looking, or did he actually like her back?

Kierra was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts by a pat on the shoulder. It was Lily, followed by Alice and Dominique.

"It's funny how you're always the last one down here for breakfast but the first one here for lunch and dinner." Lily said teasingly as she took a seat next to Kierra, who in return, only smiled and shrugged.

As Dominique took a seat across from her, Kierra was suddenly reminded of her thoughts on Remus.

"Hey guys, I forgot to tell you all…thanks…"

"For what?" asked Dominique.

"For helping me in getting Remus' attention".

"Er…" Lily looked up at Kierra awkwardly, "don't mention it…"

"You got his attention?" asked Dominique; she had abandoned buttering her toast and looked excitedly at Kierra.

"Yea…well, unless I'm mistaken"—

"When?" Lily interrupted.

"Hogsmeade! Well, when we got back from there!"

"And you're telling us now?" Alice exclaimed.

"I forgot to tell you, ok? I just remembered"—

"How could you forget something like"—

"Guys shut up let her talk!" Dominique scolded. Alice and Lily glared at Dominique but Kierra only smiled at he gratefully. It would be so much easier to recount the story without interruptions.

"Well, when we were back, after dinner, you know how I was lying on the couch before bed, and I was really tired? It was just the two of us, and he had said sorry for how he acted, with this kiss and everything ("stop giggling!" Dominique admonished) so I told him it was O.K…and then when he got up to leave…see, he thought my eyes were closed, so he didn't realize that I noticed, but he was staring at me! He was looking me up and down…I'm positive he was…and then, when he saw that I was watching him, he got all nervous and asked if I needed a blanket, and then he left!"

"Are you serious?" squealed Alice.

"Yep!" Kierra said, grinning; She was finally feeling alive for the first time that day. "But I don't know if that signifies much…I mean, it doesn't mean he likes me"—

"But it's a step!" said Dominique.

"Well, I can't believe it! You've liked him all this time and he's finally noticing you…this is great!" Lily said.

"See Kierra, all you needed was a little skirt to boost you up your ladder!" Dominique said, and they all laughed.

"What are all of you giggling about?" came a voice from behind them. It was Sirius.

"Nothing" the four girls said at once, causing Sirius to raise an eyebrow at them.

"Right…if you four aren't gossiping about some boy, I'll take old Snivellus on a date." Sirius said as he took a seat next to Dominique.

"Don't call him that" Lily snapped, as she got back to her lunch.

"Yea ok, whatever Evans" Sirius said, as he turned to Dominique. "Listen, can I borrow your notes from charms, D? I didn't take any and"—

"What about James and"—

"James and Peter weren't taking notes either because they were passing notes…and Remus won't let me because he said I've borrowed his one too many times…so please, please, please can I borrow yours?" Sirius asked, giving her his best puppy face.

"oh…fine…here…" Dominique said, pulling a notebook out of her bag.

"Ahh, D, you're the best!" Sirius exclaimed as he kissed her on the cheek and sprinted back to his friends, notebook in hand.

"D, you shouldn't let him have your notes….he'll get too dependent on you…." Lily said.

"Ah well…boys will be boys…anyway, dependence isn't a bad thing…just gives me more command, doesn't it? I'm sure that'll come in handy sometimes…" Dominique answered, "By the way Kierra," Dominique had dropped her voice slightly, "don't look now, but Remus keeps looking your way…I said don't look now!"

Kierra had craned her neck to see the boys; and indeed, Remus had looked up again at her, only to be caught into Kierra's gaze. Immediately, Kierra turned back to the girls, slightly pink. "We made eye contact!' she stammered, "why are you guys laughing?"

"You're so cute!" Alice said through her giggles.

"You and your little school girl crush…stealing glances at each other from across the room...doesn't get any more classic than that!" Dominique laughed.

"I didn't mean to..." Kierra protested.

"Of course you didn't", Lily said as she got up. "Come on guys, or we'll be late for transfiguration. McGonagall nearly popped a vein when you two came in late last time." Lily said darkly, casting a look at Kierra and Dominique.

"Yea, you're right," Dominique said, as she got up as well, "Hey Kierra, what are you going to do about Kyle?"

"What do you mean?" Kierra asked, knowing perfectly well what Dominique meant.

"You going to keep seeing him or what?"

"Well...I dunno...hey Kyle!" Kierra exclaimed, waving at the boy who was approaching them. Kierra flushed slightly but managed to put up a smile as Kyle took her hand.

"Hey Kierra, we've got quidditch practice tonight, at 7. Want to come watch? I always play better when you're there..." he said as he bent his head slightly to kiss her on the cheek.

"Oh..." Kierra looked over at Dominique, Alice, and Lily, who were giving her disapproving looks. "Well..." Suddenly she remembered that she had a legitimate excuse for turning him down. "I've got detention tonight...and the rest of this week for that matter...sorry..." Kierra said, trying to look regretful; and the fact that she honestly wasn't interested in her boyfriend made it a bit easier to look guilty.

"Oh it's ok...Keifer's such an ass for doing that to you...well, just remember our first match of the year is this Saturday at 9, you'll be there, right? It's against Slytherin!"

"Of course I'll be there!" Kierra answered.

"Alright, well I've got to run, I'll see you!" Kyle said, as he kissed her goodbye and retreated in the opposite direction.

After Kyle had disappeared, Kierra turned her attention to her friends, who were looking at her with amusement.

"What?" She demanded, as she brushed passed them to nudge them on towards McGonagall's classroom.

"You've got two boys"- Dominique had started saying, but then stopped abruptly when she looked passed Kierra.

Kierra turned around, only to see Remus walking alongside with a tall blond girl, whom Kierra remembered to be a sixth year in their house, and whose name was Megan Dorris. One of them must have said something funny, as they were both laughing.

Kierra's mouth had gone dry. Megan had just playfully punched Remus in the arm, and was flashing a smile at him; She had flawless white teeth, and were so perfectly aligned that Kierra wanted to knock a few of those pearls out of her mouth.

"Kierra"- she heard Lily's voice behind her.

"Well, I'm down to one now, eh?" Kierra said as she stalked passed the girls and headed inside McGonagall's classroom.

As Remus made his way out of the great hall by himself, determined not to let James, Sirius and Peter make him late for transfiguration again, his mind kept wandering away to the same thing it had been wandering to for the past few days. Just then, he fell out of his clouds when he ran into someone and sent books flying.

"Shoot..I'm sorry!" he said, quickly kneeling down to help pick up his victim's books.

"Don't worry about it." The girl smiled at him as she got up. "Thanks" she said to him as he handed her books back to her.

"No problem...er, I'm sorry, I don't know your name..."

"Megan Dorris."

"I'm Remus Lupin"

"Yea, I know" The girl smiled and brushed a strand of long blond hair out of her way. Remus couldn't help but smile back at her adulation.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked as they walked down the hall together.

"Um, we're in the same house!"

"Ohhh…." Remus said, feeling a bit embarrassed at not ever noticing her before.

"Yea….I'm in sixth year though, so maybe that's why you never noticed…."

"Yea…I mean….er…" Remus stammered, while Megan laughed.

"What? You didn't know who I was!" Megan said sarcastically, punching him jokily in the arm.

"I'm sorry, I guess I've been in my own world..." Remus said, glad to see that she was lighthearted. He glanced down the hall that they were passing through, and he realized that Kierra and her friends were walking only a few meters ahead of him; Remus quickened his pace slightly, hoping that Megan wouldn't be offended.

"Um, Remus...?" Megan started, quickening her pace as well. "I was wondering…are you into quidditch? I mean, since you seem to have a few friends on the team...and well, we've got a match coming up..."

Remus looked at her, a bit taken aback by her boldness. "Um…."

"Oh I mean…if you don't want to…I understand…." Megan said quickly, turning a little pink.

Remus glanced back over at Kierra, who was now walking hand in hand with Kyle. He had just planted a kiss on her lips. Remus balled his hands into tight fists as he watched, but quickly turned his attention back to Megan. "No…no, I'd love to…" he said with a smile. At this, Megan smiled back excitedly. "Really?"

"Yea…This Saturday, why don't we watch it together?"

"I'd love that!" Megan was beaming.

"Well, I better go, I'll see you around, Megan..." Remus said as he turned to go towards Professor McGonagall's classroom.

"Alright, you too! Bye Remus!" Megan called after him as she headed towards her own class.

Sirius casually looked up towards the front of the class, pretending to look very interested in what Professor McGonagall was saying about animagi. Like he needed to know. He then glanced over to his right side, to see James scribbling a note to him. Moments later, James slid a piece of parchment over to Sirius' side of the table that they sat at. He glanced down at James' messy handwriting.

'Why won't Lily give me a chance? I've tried everything, and she won't even look at me!'

Sirius glanced back at James and gave him a slightly irritated look before he put his quill to the parchment.

'I don't know…maybe you should stop obsessing over her and breathing down her neck…oh and acting a little less egotistical might help you out too…' He slid the note back to James.

'Thanks a million, Padfoot, and FYI, I am not obsessed with Lily Potter.'

'Don't you mean Evans?'

'Oh right…'

'Yea…you're definitely not obsessive…My ink is dripping with sarcasm in case you haven't picked that up…'

'Oh sod off…'

Saturday came very quickly for all but Kierra, who had stayed late every evening to clean up Professor Keifer's classroom, making the week seem like a month for her. As any Quidditch-game-day morning, the great hall was full very early in the morning, as everyone wanted to get out onto the quidditch pitch as soon as possible to get good seats. By 8 o'clock, the tables were packed with students, chattering excitedly about the upcoming match. The only person who wasn't eating or chatting was James Potter.

James paced around nervously by the Gryffindor table, where his teammates had sat together for breakfast, under his orders, though he himself would not eat a bite.

"Really Prongs, it's getting quite annoying! Sit down already and eat some breakfast!" Sirius said with a look of annoyance at James.

"Dominique," James said, ignoring Sirius, "you remember what we went over"--

"Yes James...for the millionth time, I know about their penalty shot moves! I can assure you, I won't let a single quaffle in, ok?" Dominique said, also a bit annoyed. She was feeling nervous as it was, being her first real quidditch match; she had never played for a real team before, and never in front of an entire audience of enthusiastic fans. Not only that, but she had a quidditch-obsessed fanatic for a captain, who had been hissing quidditch tips at her at every waking moment for the past three days. On top of all that, Gryffindor had a winning record, and being the new addition, she didn't want to be the one to ruin it for them.

"Good girl..." James said, still pacing around. "Oh shit" James said, coming to a halt. "I left my wand up in the dormitory...I'll be back guys, I want to have it on me, just in case...you never know with Slytherin!" James shouted as he sprinted out the great hall.

Minutes later, a shout came from the great hall entrance, followed by several other screams. The entire hall turned in the direction of the entrance, to see a battered looking James Potter stagger in, before collapsing to the floor.


	11. Chapter 11: Quidditch

Chapter 11: Quidditch

Remus, Peter, Lily, Kierra and all of the Gryffindor players were the first to make it to the entrance and immediately surrounded James. Sirius and Remus pulled James up with great effort and led him to the nearest seat.

"James, what happened?" asked Remus, who was dusting James' torn robes.

"Someone...some people...attacked me...wands..." James sputtered. Blood was dripping out of his lower lip.

"Who?" Dominique asked.

"Dunno...they wore hoods...faces were covered..."

"What'd they do?" Sirius asked, as he, Remus and Dominique began frantically to check for injuries.

"Someone tripped me when I came out of the portrait hole..." James muttered, "next thing I know...a buncha people are hexing me..."-- James stopped and hunched over, and started puking a thick yellow-green substance.

"Come on, we need to get him to the hospital wing!" It was Lily. The now massive crowd that surrounded James parted, giving him room to make his way out, helped by Remus and Sirius and led by Lily and the others.

Just as they turned the corner that led to the hospital wing, the group ran right into Professor McGonagall.

"Professor! James has been attacked!" Lily exclaimed, "We don't know who, but they ambushed him..."

"Quickly, in here..." Professor McGonagall turned around and opened the door to the hospital wing. "Poppy, Mr. Potter needs immediate attention. Miss Evans, explain to me in full detail." Lily nodded and quickly recounted what little that James had told the group about the attackers, that they were all hooded.

"I bet you anything it was a bunch of Slytherins" Kierra said nastily. "Trying to sabatoge the game..."

"I agree with you Miss Nakofsky...but I'm afraid there's no way we could prove it"--

"The game! OWW!" James had shot up from his bed only to fall back down in pain. "Madam Pomfrey...I've got to play"--

"Indeed you will not, Mr. Potter! You are in no condition!" Professor McGonagall said shrilly.

"But Professor...we'll have to forfeit"--

"Then let that be! I would rather have that than have one of my students get killed in a game of quidditch!"

"Maybe if we get a substitute in..." James said hopefully.

"Enough!" shouted Madam Pomfrey, "I want everyone out of here so I can take care of Mr. Potter! Just wait outside!"

And with that, the entire group of students filed out of the hospital wing.

A few minutes later, Madam Pomfrey emerged from the wing. "Mr. Potter has been badgering me to let the quidditch team in, he wants to have a quick team meeting. Now, only the quidditch players!"

With that, Kyle, Frank, Tyler, Alice, Sirius, and Dominique reentered the hospital wing, leaving Peter, Remus, Kierra, and Lily outside.

"How are you pulling through, James?" Frank asked as they gathered around his bed.

Before he could answer, Madam Pomfrey came bustling through with a bar of chocolate. "He'll live," she said, as she broke off a piece and stuffed it into his mouth. "Whoever did this to him hit him with some terrible hexes...but they didn't do a good job at it."

"Will you be able to fix him up?" asked Dominique.

"In time for the game?" James asked.

"Yes, I can fix him up, but no, not in time for the game. I can get you bandaged up, but you'll be in too much pain from the potions I'm about to give you, you will be in no state to play." Madam Pomfrey said, as she filled up a tiny goblet with a liquid that let out pink fumes. "Drink up!" she ordered.

James gulped down the contents in a few seconds, but made faces of disgust as he did so. "That was disgusting..." he muttered. "Ok listen everyone..." James let out a few coughs, "here's the thing...we have to play. Forfeiting is not an option. We have to play."

"But without a seeker?" Alice asked "Our only shot at winning then would be to score over 150 points before their seeker finds the snitch...and then of course try to beat him down with bludgers..."

"Or get a substitute" James repeated. "We need a substitute. Now, quick...who do we have..."

"Peter, Remus, Lily and Kierra are out in the hall...you can ask one of them since they're right here..." Sirius suggested.

"Excellent...ok...Peter...he's terrified of flying...Remus...hmm ok maybe Remus...he's got a good build...but...I don't think he's ever played a game of quidditch in his life..."

"Might not be a good idea then..." said Kyle.

"Ok...that leaves Kierra and Lily...I don't know how either of them are..." James turned to Alice and Dominique for answers.

"Well, they've seen some of our practices...so they wouldn't be totally clueless..." said Dominique.

"Excellent! So they know our moves!" James shouted.

"I don't think they paid that much attention to us..." said Alice.

"Ok whatever, bring them all in, we can ask..." James said.

Seconds later, Remus, Peter, Lily and Kierra appeared by James' bedside.

"Ok...we need a seeker..." James said, and at once, all four of them backed away. "Come on! One of you guys needs to step up! Ok Peter, I know you're not keen on riding broomsticks, so you don't have to...(Peter sighs with relief) Remus...you've got the best build...but..." James saw apprehension rise in Remus' face; he looked a bit more closely at Remus, and noticed that he was looking a bit peaky. It suddenly hit him; the full moon was approaching. "You don't look well...ok..." James turned and faced Lily and Kierra. "Please...one of you guys..." Suddenly, Lily pushed Kierra forward. "Excellent! I knew you'd come through, Kierra!"

Kierra's jaw dropped. "B-bb-but..."

"Look you're our only hope!" James bellowed. "I know you haven't got much experience...but I can't let Gryffindor go down without a fight...if we're going down, it's got to be with dignity!"

"You'll be fine Kierra" Kyle said, wrapping an arm around her waist. "You've seen us practice a few times..."

"Listen" James interrupted. He winced for a moment and held his stomach tightly.

"James, allow me..." Sirius said, as he helped James to lie down. "Alright," Sirius said, turning to the team, "We've got 20 minutes until the game. Peter, can you go tell McGonagall that we've got a sub for James, and that we're not forfeiting?"

"Got it." With that, Peter marched off to find Professor McGonagall.

"Ok, everyone else, let's go down and change. And girls, while you get ready," Sirius said, turning to Alice and Dominique, "go over as much as you can with Kierra, alright? Get a shooting star from Madam Hooch"--

"Are you kidding me?" James had started up again. "Use my broom!"

"Your broom?" Kierra stammered. It was a known fact that James treated his Cleansweep like it was his own baby. "Are you sure?"

"Yes...I'm positive...it's the fastest broom out there, with the exception of the new nimbus...just don't hurt it, ok?" James said, with a look of plea in his eyes.

"Of course..." Kierra said.

"Alright, Remus can you go find James' broom and get it to Kierra ASAP, so she can have a go on it before the match?"

"Yea, sure" Remus said as he quickly made his way out of the hospital wing.

Sirius turned to Kyle. "Can you help me get James out of these robes? We'll clean them up a little for Kierra"--

"Sure" Kyle replied.

"I can get out of these myself!" James shouted hoarsely, causing him to fall into another fit of vomitting.

Within minutes, Kierra was being fitted into James' robes all while Alice and Dominique were trying to drill her on Quidditch moves. Remus had just appeared with Megan on the scene with James' broom in hand.

"Ok, you've got about ten minutes until you've got to appear. Let's go out into the courtyard. It should be empty since everyone's out on the quidditch pitch.

"Alright..." Kierra answered nervously as she followed Remus and Megan out onto the empty courtyard.

"Ok," Remus began, "so when you mount your broom, make sure"--

"I know how to fly, you know!" Kierra snapped. What did he take her for, anyway? Surely she had a little more wit than the blonde bimbo who was clutching his arm.

"Er..sorry...ok...go ahead..." Remus said quickly, as he backed away from Kierra. He looked at her apologetically. At that instant, Kierra felt sorry for snapping at him.

"Sorry...I'm just nervous..." Kierra muttered.

"It's ok...just go ahead and fly around a bit...get used to his broom..." Remus answered. With that, Kierra mounted James' Cleansweep and kicked off the ground. She gave a small startled gasp at the speed at which it took off with. This was nothing like the comet 100 she kept at home. It was much smoother and faster.

"Take a few dips and turns! Get a feel for the brakes!" Remus called out from below her. Kierra nodded in obedience and leaned forward. She could really feel the power in this broomstick. It was much easier to control than the ones she was used to. Excited, Kierra decided to test her skills. She plunged straight towards the ground, and shot back up when she was a few feet from the ground. As she pulled back up, Remus voiced out what she had been thinking.

"That was excellent!" he shouted, smiling at her.

"Thanks!" Kierra shouted back. Her nervousness and fear had started to melt away as she flew around. Just then, Kyle walked onto the courtyard and waved frantically at her.

"Kierra! Game time! Now!"

Immediately, Kierra lowered herself to the ground with a smooth landing, and hopped off the broom. "That was some really good flying!" Megan exclaimed.

"Thanks" Kierra answered as she clutched James' broom.

"Alright, let's get going. You two," Kyle said as he turned to Remus and Megan, "should go get some seats...maybe you can go sit with James..."

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked quickly, "Isn't he supposed to be in the hospital wing?"

"Yea...well, he threw a huge tantrum about missing the game...in front of Pomfrey, McGonagall, AND Dumbledore...burst right into tears..." Kyle grinned.

"No way..." breathed Kierra.

"Yea...he did..he was in a right state, I'm tellin ya...crying about how he had to watch the game...it was his only hope for recovery..."

Kierra snorted. "Only hope for recovery?"

"Pomfrey threw a fit herself, saying she needed to take care of him...I think Dumbledore found it quite amusing...so he let James come and watch..."

"But is he even in a state to come out there on the pitch?" asked Remus, as they walked down the grassy path towards the Quidditch field.

""Kind of...he's going to be sitting in his own little private box...so he can throw up freely, you know..." Kyle answered. "But I think you guys should go sit with him...give him some support...and maybe keep him from getting too worked up...for his own sake, you know..."

"Yes...of course..." Remus said. "Megan, you mind if we sit with James?"

"No, not at all!" Megan answered.

When they arrived at the Quidditch pitch, Kyle pulled Kierra away from Remus and Megan. "Well," he said, "We've got to go out in the back, so we can all come out together. We'll see you guys after the game."

"Alright...well, good luck guys!" Remus said, glancing at Kierra and nodding at her slightly.

"Thanks!" Kyle and Kierra said together as they strolled off. "I'm gonna need it..." Kierra muttered aloud as they made it around the back of the quidditch pitch where the other Gryffindor players were waiting.

"You'll be fine!" Kyle assured her.

Kierra looked around. Everyone was pacing around, except for Sirius, who was gripping Dominique's shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes and talking softly to her. She seemed to have gone a bit pale, and was nodding at him but didn't seem to be listening to him. It then ocurred to Kierra that this was Dominique's first match.

Listen D, I'll keep an extra eye on you...I won't let any bludgers get near you..."

"I'm not worried about bludgers..." Dominique answered, "What if I miss a goal..."

"Dominique!" Sirius exclaimed, "I'm sure we'll be able to afford to miss a few goals! Don't worry!"

But Kierra heard no more of their conversation. Kyle had just shouted at them to get into position. Dominique and Kierra stood side by side in the front. Neither of them looked at each other; they were both too nervous. Behind them were Sirius and Kyle, and in the back stood Tyler, Alice and Frank.

"This is so weird..." Frank commented, "Not having James leading us out..." The others nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, Sirius jabbed Dominique in the back with his broomstick.

"Loosen your grip on your broom," he hissed, "You'll break it right in half! Just calm yourself! Ok, go!" he said quickly, as the Gryffindor team was announced on the magical megaphone. As they marched out, one by one they took off in the air, until they all hovered at different heights above the quidditch pitch.

"And in place of Gryffindor seeker James Potter," John Meyer, the announcer yelled, "we have Miss Kierra Nakofsky! Here she comes! Wonder if she plays as good as she looks!"

"MEYER!" everyone could hear Professor McGonagall scolding John.

"Sorry Ma'am! We've also got two new additions to the Gryffindor team- Kyle Watson as beater, and Dominique Fiore as keeper! Now if she plays like the average French Quidditch player...this might be a pretty quick match"--

"JOHN MEYER YOU ARE NOT BEING PAID TO INSULT THE PLAYERS!" McGonagall bellowed.

"I was just kidding professor!" John yelled into his microphone.

Seconds later, the Slytherin team was announced, and they too flew out onto the field. The Slytherin seeker, Lucius Malfoy, flew right up to Kierra and circled her. "Well, well, well...Nakofsky...you're a quidditch virgin aren't you?" he said nastily, making some nearby Slytherins, beaters, burst into laughter.

"Shut it, Malfoy" Kierra spat.

"Don't worry, we'll play nice, won't we boys?" Lucius called out at the beaters, who doubled with laughter, nodding their heads.

"Oh yes, of course we will!" said one, by the name of Ian Winston.

"Yea, we'll be sure to give her a warm reception!" said the other, whose name was Peter Johnson.

"Ignore them!" shouted Dominique, who hovered a few feet away by the goal posts. Lucius, Ian and Peter immediately turned on her, just as the quaffle was being thrown into the air by Madam Hooch.

"And Gryffindor in position!" cried John Meyer.

"Mmm, you think you're so tough, don't you Fiore?" Malfoy sneered, clearly not caring that the game had begun.

"Well, it's more of a fact than an opinion" Dominique replied coolly, keeping one eye out for the quaffle.

"We'll see about that!" Peter said, watching a nearby bludger come his way. He swung his club backwards and struck it squarely at Dominique. The bludger came speeding towards her; but before she could even make a move, something flew in between her and the bludger and struck the bludger back in the direction that it came from- hitting Peter in the side, forcing him to drop several feet below them. Now facing an angry Sirius, Ian and Lucius quickly dispersed back into the game.

"Sirius!" Dominique gasped. "thanks..."

"Didn't I say I wouldn't let any bludgers get near you?" he replied with a wink at Dominique; but then he turned to face Kierra, who was shaking madly. "listen Kierra, Kyle and I are going to watch out for you...we've got a feeling that those dolts have marked you as their main target...since you're new and all..."

"Oh great..." Kierra muttered.

"Just...don't worry about them...focus on getting that snitch as soon as possible, and keep an eye on Malfoy!" Sirius said, as he ducked quickly to avoid taking a bludger to the head. "Ooohh, Ian's heading towards Alice, see you!" Sirius shouted as he darted off towards Alice, reaching her just in time to save her from a bludger.

"YES! YES! SIRIUS I LOVE YOU!" James shouted hoarsely from his private stand, as Sirius repelled the bludger that was about to hit Alice, allowing her to shoot the quaffle into one of the rings, bringing in another 10 points for Gryffindor. The stand's only other occupants were Remus, his date Megan, Peter and to James's surprise, (and rejoice) Lily.

"James calm yourself! Or you'll start puking again!" Lily scolded him.

"Sorry..." James said. He glanced over at Lily, but then did a doubletake when he saw that she was looking at him with worried eyes. "You don't want me to puke?" he asked.

"Course not...I don't want it getting all over me, you know..." Lily said quickly.

"Oh God...Oh God...I can't watch..." Peter was muttering, as he clamped his hands over his eyes. Lily and James stood up quickly to see what Peter was worried about. Lucius Malfoy was bumping Kierra as hard as he could...

"OH MY GOD SLYTHERIN SEEKER MALFOY IS TRYING TO KNOCK NAKOFSKY OFF HER BROOM!" Meyer shouted.

Suddenly, with great force, he pushed Kierra right off her broom, and she was hurtling towards the ground, from being almost 50 feet in the air.

"KIERRA!" Lily screamed; but she suddenly felt herself being pushed aside. It was Remus; he had pulled out his wand and was aiming carefully at Kierra.

"Mobulus Redomum!" he shouted. For an instant, Kierra's body stopped in midair, but then continued to fall again, only now she fell as if she were a feather blowing in the wind. Just as she neared the ground, her broom caught up with her, and she immediately hopped back on.

Kierra looked around wildly at the audience to see where the jet of light came from. Just then, she saw it. Remus was tucking his wand into his pocket, and Lily was hugging him, sobbing out of control.

"AND ANOTHER 10 POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!" Meyer yelled. Kierra looked over at the scoreboard. It was now 80-30, Gryffindor lead. 'D's excellent...' Kierra thought; the 30 points that Slytherin had gotten were either from penalties or from cheap moves the Slytherins made on Dominique.

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a soft buzzing noise coming from behind her. She quickly turned around, just in time to see the golden snitch shoot downwards. Kierra quickly followed. 'This isn't too hard...' Kierra thought as she nudged her broom onwards. She just needed more speed. Suddenly, the snitch decided to change angles and shot upwards again; Kierra narrowly escaping a crash in the ground. She could now hear someone flying right behind her. She didn't have to turn around to know that Lucius was tailing her. They were now neck in neck.

"Give it up you filthy half blood!" Malfoy snarled as he caught up to Kierra.

"Filthy! You should talk! Look at how you play!" shouted Kierra, as she struggled to keep up to Malfoy's speed. Suddenly they both slowed down until they stopped and hung in midair. The snitch had disappeared again.

"Well, Quidditch is a dirty little game...that's just how you play it" Lucius smirked at her.

Kierra's face suddenly lit up. "Yea...you're right...hey! The snitch!" Kierra shifted her gaze downwards and pointed at the ground.

"Where!" Malfoy looked downwards as well and leaned over to take off, when...

"AND KIERRA HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!"

Malfoy had looked up just in time to see Kierra race around him to grab the snitch, which was zooming around in circles around his own broomstick end. She held the snitch out in the air and grinned at him before flying out towards the other Gryffindors.

"KIERRA YOU WERE EXCELLENT! I LOVE YOU!" James was jumping up and down from his stand; His shirt looked dirty...possible covered with vomit...his lip had begun to bleed again. He looked positively sick, yet he didn't seem to notice. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID IT!"--

"KIERRA WATCH OUT!" Lily bellowed, pointing at something behind her. Kierra, who was still hovering on her broom, turned around just in time to see two bludgers coming her way.


	12. Chapter 12: Kierra Confused

Chapter 12: Kierra Confused

"She's awake! She's awake!"

"Shh! Not so loud! You'll send her back into a coma! Kierra dear," Madam Pomfrey whispered, "can you hear me?"

Kierra opened her eyes slowly. She was laying down, and was surrounded by goggling eyes. Madam Pomfrey was standing over her, looking very pale. She glanced around. The entire quidditch team, as well as Lily, Remus and Peter were staring at her. She heard Dominique let out a small whimper. All Kierra could do was nod. Then she noticed it. The quidditch team wasn't dressed in uniform. James didn't even look sick; on the contrary, he looked remarkably well.

"How long have I been here?" Kierra asked wearily.

"Five days" Remus said quietly.

"Wow...I...why..?" Kierra asked.

"You took a bludger to the head after you caught the snitch." Dominique said.

"Oh..." The memory seemed to return to Kierra as her head began to ache.

"You played wonderfully..." James said, looking at Kierra with admiration. "I think I'm going to keep you on as our permanent substitute, just in case..." he said quickly.

"I dunno..." Kierra said, pulling herself up. "oww!" she shouted as she grabbed her leg that was now throbbing pain.

"Oh...yea, you also took a bludger to the shin before you got hit in the head..." Sirius added.

"And then you fell off your broom...off course it was only a few feet..." Alice said.

"My broom...? James...er...I didn't...hurt it, did I?" Kierra asked fearfully.

"Just a few scratches...but it's ok...really!" James said when he saw how upset Kierra looked. "You coming out of here O.K. is more important than the welfare of my broom, Kierra."

"I'm flattered" Kierra said, smiling. "So...who hit the bludgers at me? Ian and Peter?"

"Peter and Lucius..." Remus answered with a small smile, "He seemed pretty ticked that you tricked him into looking down when the snitch was right behind him."

"That was brilliant..." James said with a small sigh of nostalgia. "Look, When you're better, you've got to start coming to all of our practices"--

"James, I don't think this is a good time..." Dominique said.

"I'm just saying!" James continued, "What if it's you next time? Or Sirius...or Frank...I'm just saying we should have a permanent substitute on the roster..."

"She played pretty good without any practice at all" Sirius replied, "I don't see why"-

"Well, it doesn't hurt to"--

"Hey!" Kierra shouted, "I'm still here you know! Maybe you guys can ask me what I wanna do?"

"Ok Kierra, what do you want to do?" James said sweetly to her.

"I don't have time to watch all of your practices...if you guys ever need a replacement, I guess I'm there...but I'm not up to being a full time member and only a part time player..." Kierra replied.

"But Kierraaaa!" James whined.

"That's enough!" Madam Pomfrey shouted, pushing James and Sirius out of her way. She held out a goblet full of smoky potion. "Ok Kierra, I need you to take this now..."

Kierra took the goblet and took a sip, and immediately sputtered; "AGH this is gross! Why couldn't you make me take it when I was unconscious?"

"You have to be awake to take this potion dear...now hurry up and finish it up! We've got a lot of work to do now that you're up! Now, the rest of you, please leave! You've all got class!" Madam Pomfrey

"Class?" Kierra exclaimed, "Oh my gosh…wait what day is it?"

"Today's Thursday"—

"Oh no! I've got a test tomorrow"—

"Now Miss Nakofsky, you sit back and get some rest"—

"I've been sleeping for five days, I think I'm pretty well rested now…." Kierra protested.

"I don't think so…You'll be in too much pain to get around…you've got a broken leg, you know…" Madam Pomfrey replied as she fluffed one of Kierra's pillows. "Ah..quidditch…such a violent sport….I've told Dumbledore so many times that he ought to ban it here…"

"Ban quidditch? You're kidding me…" James said indignantly.

"Madam Pomfrey, please…I'm feeling fine…I really want to go to class…I've got midterms coming up…I need to be in class!" Kierra said.

"And how do you plan on getting around missy, on that broken leg of yours?" Madam Pomfrey snapped.

"We can help her…" Lily spoke up. "We'll help her get around…"

"Yes, of course! We'd be happy to!" James chimed in.

Madam Pomfrey sighed with defeat. "Fine...if that means I'll be getting rid of all of you so I can at least tend to my other patients…so be it…Miss Evans, be so kind as to fetch Kierra her school clothes…."

"yesss….." Kierra said as she lifted her covers off herself and sat up in bed.

"Wow…you're a dork Kierra…" Sirius said, raising an eyebrow at her. "Excited about going to class…."

"We've got midterms coming up, Black!" Kierra exclaimed.

"So?"

"Well, some of us actually need to attend class and take notes to pass our exams…" Kierra said as she rolled her eyes.

"Hmm…wonder what that's like…" Sirius said thoughtfully, as he walked up to the window and looked at the empty quidditch pitch.

"You're boyfriend's so modest, Dominique…" Kierra said sarcastically.

Kierra glanced over to her right, where Remus stood quietly, staring at the ceiling.

"Erm…Remus…?" Kierra began.

"yea?" Remus said, abruptly shifting his eyes down to meet Kierra's.

"Um…thanks…for saving me….when I fell…"

"Don't mention it" he said quickly.

"No…really…that was really quick thinking…I might not be awake right now…had you not…" a lump seemed to settle in Kierra's throat. Why now? She thought…why…why did she get so emotional…he had just stopped her in midair…he had just…saved her life….

Remus extended an arm out, as if to put it around her, but seemed to think better of it and instead rested his hand on top of her headboard. "Well…you're ok…you're safe now…" he said quietly.

"I got your clothes, Kierra!" Lily shouted as she marched into the hospital wing.

"Well…" Kierra breathed. "This is turning out to be a bit harder than I thought…" she said as Sirius helped her up the stairs, while Dominique carried her bag. This was Kierra's second, and hopefully last day being bandaged up. Madam Pomfrey promised her she would be able to take them off today after class and give her the potion that was right now brewing in its final stage.

"Well, at least it's your last day…" Sirius said, as he helped Kierra up another step. "You are way too slow…."

"Sorry, one of my legs is kind of broken…" Kierra replied sarcastically.

"We're gonna be late for Runes at this rate…" Sirius muttered.

"Since when did you ever care about being late for class?" Dominique asked. Sirius threw her a fake angry glare and turned back to Kierra. "Alright…enough of this…" Sirius said. He knelt down slightly and picked Kierra up.

"HEY! PUT ME DOWN!"

"Shut up Kierra" Sirius replied as he continued up the staircase with Kierra in his arms. "Well, that sped things up a bit, didn't it Kierra?" Sirius said as he put her down when the reached the top of the staircase.

"yea…yea…" Kierra muttered.

Sirius grinned and turned to look at Dominique, who rolled her eyes at him.

"What?"

"Nothing…"

"Oh…I know…you're jealous!" Sirius shouted triumphantly.

"Moi? Jealous?" Dominique asked airily.

"Aw…you want a ride too, don't you?" Sirius laughed.

"Oh shut up Sirius…" Dominique broke into laughter as well.

"You know you can ride me anytime you want, baby…you just tell me the time and place"—

"I'm still here you know!" Kierra said, pinching Sirius's arm. "Save your dirty talk for when no one's around!"

"Mr. Black…" Professor Davies said casually, "be so kind as to turn your essay in…then you can continue whispering sweet nothings into Miss Fiore's ear…"

"Right sir…" Sirius said, hastily searching through his bag, while the rest of the class laughed, until he pulled out a roll of parchment. "Here you go sir…" Sirius said as he marched up to the front of the room and placed the roll of parchment on Professor Davies' desk.

"Thank you, Mr. Black….alright, well, that's it for today, you all are dismissed. Remember, midterms are coming up, do not wait until the last minute to study!" Professor Davies said, casting a look at James and Sirius.

"Wouldn't dream of it sir!" James said as he grabbed his bag and ran out of the class after Dominique and Sirius.

Kierra smiled and gathered her own things. Just as she got up, a stabbing pain went through her leg. 'damnit…' she thought as she sat back down.

"Need some help?" a voice came behind her. It was Remus.

"Er…yea…I could use some." Kierra replied, smiling at him.

With that, Remus grabbed Kierra's bag and slung it over his right shoulder, which was already carrying his own bag. He then helped Kierra up slowly and helped her put her arm around him for support. As he put his free arm around her waist to steady her, he could feel her body tense up. 'Either she really wants me, or is really repulsed by me…' Remus thought, as he helped her out of the classroom.

As they made their way downstairs, the staircase abruptly began to move, sending an unprepared Kierra and Remus flying.

"Woooahhh!" Kierra and Remus both shouted as they toppled down the steps, books tumbling with them as they went.

"Oof!" Kierra landed hard at the landing of the staircase. Seconds later, Remus landed right on top of her, causing her to grunt again in pain.

"So this is how Jack and Jill felt when they fell down that hill…" Kierra breathed.

"Who…?"

"Nevermind…"

"Are you alright?" Remus asked in a soft voice.

"yea…." Kierra opened her eyes, only to be looking right into Remus's eyes, which were now about an inch away from hers.

"that's good…"

"yea...good..."

Kierra and Remus had been staring at each other for a moment, when Kierra finally snapped back into her senses.

"Remus?"

"yea?"

"My leg…."

"Oh!" Remus quickly pulled himself off of Kierra and knelt over her broken leg. "I'm sorry…"

"It's ok…" Kierra said, shuttering slightly. A second ago, Remus was laying right on top of her. She could actually feel him breathe. It had felt so nice…except for the physical pain she felt from falling down the stairs…and of course her broken leg which was probably further broken now…but otherwise…it had been a very nice experience…and he hadn't gotten off until she snapped him back into senses…Kierra thought happily. She looked at Remus, who was feeling her leg for any more broken bones. She fought the temptation to grab him by the collar and pull him back down on her, but instead… "I'm fine…don't worry…I think the same bones are broken…I'm not feeling any new pain…"

"Are you sure?"

"yea…positive…there's no way my leg could hurt more than it already was…"

"Alright, if you say so…well, let's get you to the hospital wing then..."

Kierra bounded down the stairs, heading straight to the great hall to meet her friends for dinner.

"I'm free!" She shouted as she sprinted down the aisle towards Dominique, Alice, and Lily, who watched her with great amusement. "I can walk! I can run! Oh FUCK"-- She shouted as she tripped over her shoelace and fell right at her friends' feet, causing laughter from all corners of the great hall.

"Good to have you back to normal, Kierra" Alice laughed as she helped Kierra up. "We were quite tired of carrying your things around for you..."

"And we were quite tired of hauling your ass around everywhere too!" came a voice behind them. It was James, with Sirius, Peter and Remus.

"You're too kind, James..." Kierra said, "Well, thanks...all of you...for helping me get around these past two days..."

Lily smiled at Kierra, but then frowned, as she saw the boys taking seats next to them. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Eating dinner..." Sirius replied.

"I know that," Lily snapped, "I mean, what are you doing, sitting here? You guys normally sit down there" she said, pointing towards the end of the table, several feet away from them.

"We like it here better..." James said, grinning. "Besides, it's more convenient...to be right next to you guys...now I don't have to get up if I wanna tease you all...and Sirius is right by his...what did you call her the other day Sirius?"

"Shut up!" Sirius and Dominique said together, both blushing.

"Oh yea! his...pussycat!" James chuckled. The others burst into laughter.

"Is that your universal nickname, or can we keep calling you D?" Kierra laughed.

"Shut up..." Dominique muttered, now looking as pink as the strawberry icecream that sat in front of her.

"Guys...I've got to talk to you..." Kierra said, as they made their way out of the great hall. She glanced around to make sure the boys were nowhere near them. "About Remus..."

Alice, Dominique and Lily immediately stopped in their tracks.

"Oh, keep walking, would you?" Kierra snapped. They quickly reached the portrait hole and made to rush up the stairs to the girls dormitories, when a voice behind them called after them.

"Why are you ladies heading off to bed so early!" James called after them. "It's only 8:30!"

"Tired!" Alice shouted as they ran up the steps.

James snorted. "Yea right!" James turned to his friends, who were playing exploding snap, and said "they're probably gonna have some little gossiping session..."

Kierra immediately recounted the incident when she and Remus fell down the stairs.

"...and he didn't even move! Not until I reminded him about my leg"--

"Ah...he totally fancies you, Kierra..." Lily said excitedly.

"yea...and he's become nicer to you these last couple of weeks...pays more attention to you...I think he does like you..." Dominique said in agreement.

Kierra sighed. She had a crush on him since last year...and now...finally, it was mutual...

"So, are you gonna dump Kyle then?" Alice asked.

"Huh?"

"Well...how else is Remus going to ask you out? He can't do that if you're seeing someone else!" Alice replied.

"Good point..." Kierra said dumbly. "Ok...I'll do it tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow we're going to Hogsmead!" Lily reminded her. "Unless you want to go spend the day with him and then just break it off...you should do it now! He was downstairs in the common room, just go...tell him now!"

"Now..?" Kierra whined. She turned to Alice and and Dominique for help, but they nodded in agreement with Lily. Kierra sighed. "Yea, ok..." and with that, she marched back down the stairs.

"Oy, back already?" James asked as Kierra came into the common room. "This is great! Now you can do my divination homework for me"--

"Do it yourself Potter..." Kierra said, looking for Kyle. She spotted him at a table on the other end of the room, laughing with Frank Longbottom.

"Er...Kyle...?" Kierra said as she walked up to them.

"Hey Kierra! What's up? Oh...I wanted to ask you if"--

"Um...can I talk to you...in private..?" Kierra cut him off, afraid that he was going to ask her to spend the day with him tomorrow at Hogsmead.

"yea sure...see you Frank..." Kyle said as he got up. "Is everything ok?"

"Why don't we get out of here...take a little walk..." Kierra said, seeing that Remus had noticed her and Kyle.

"Whatever you want..."

Once out of the common room, Kyle took Kierra's hand in his own as they began to amble down the corridor. "So what's up?"

Kierra sighed. "ok..um...I don't know how to say this...I...really like you Kyle...you're really sweet...and funny...but..."

"Oh no..." Kyle sighed. "not the but's...I've got a feeling I know where this is heading..."

Kierra frowned and looked at him apologetically. She really did feel sorry. "I'm sorry...I just don't think...that we really...click..."

"I thought we got along great..."

"We did...we did...I mean...we got along...but...I never really felt anything between us...nothing more than..well, friendship..."

"I see..." Kyle said quietly.

"I mean...it's nothing against you Kyle! I really do like you...but it would be dishonest on my part if I kept seeing you..."

"Is there someone else?"

"yea...I mean...I haven't gone behind your back...I haven't done anything...I just mean...my feelings are heading in another direction...that's all...and I can't control where my affections go...I'm sorry..." Kierra hated breaking up with people.

"No...it's ok...you're not at fault...I totally understand." Kyle replied.

"So...you don't hate me for ending things...?" Kierra asked timidly.

Kyle smiled slightly. "No...of course not...just...don't tell me who this other guy is...I might hate him..."

"Well in that case...I think I better head up back to my room...before you ask..." Kierra said.

"Good idea..I...I'm just gonna linger around here a bit longer.."

"Alright...well...goodnight...thanks for understanding..."

Kyle smiled at her. He leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips. "Goodnight" and with that, he turned on his heel and trudged off.

Kierra sighed with relief. That didn't go too bad, she thought. Actually, that was about the healthiest breakup she had ever experienced. She slowly turned around, and headed back to the portrait hole.

As the portait swung open and Kierra stepped through to the common room, she saw that it had emptied out quite a bit. As she made her way towards the staircase, she saw Sirius and Remus heading up towards the stairs to the boys' dormitory.

"Hey Moony, have you got plans for tomorrow? I told D we'd cut our date short so she could hang out with her friends and I could hang out with you guys."

"Sounds good" Remus said, "only I've got a date tomorrow myself. I don't think Megan will mind if I don't hang out with her the whole day."

"Well, if she does, she's welcome to join us...so what has it been, a week now with her, right?"

"yea..." Remus replied, "she's great...really sweet girl...and she's funny..."

"Not to mention gorgeous..." Sirius interjected.

Remus laughed. "yea, that too..."

Sirius and Remus had disappeared up the stairs, and Kierra stood in the common room. had she just broken up with Kyle in vain? Kierra marched up to the girls' dormitory, to see Alice, Lily and Dominique anxiously awaiting her.

"Well?" Lily asked excitedly. "How'd it go?"

Kierra plopped herself on her bed and looked at them miserably. "Fine..."

"Doesn't sound like it did...what happened?" Dominique asked.

"Well...the break up went fine...he took it o.k...but...I just heard Sirius and Remus talking...he's still seeing Megan..." Kierra said, who was now crying. "I broke up with Kyle for nothing! He still likes Megan! He's going to see her tomorrow! That stupid Megan! Sweet..funny...gorgeous...Megan!"

"Did he say that about her?" Alice asked.

"Yea...well, Sirius called her gorgeous..."

"What!" Dominique snapped. Alice nudged her in the ribs and gave her a warning look. "Oh...Right..." Dominique said grumpily.

"Look...he doesn't know that you've broken up with Kyle, does he?" Lily asked. Kierra shook her head. "Well then, just give it some time...if he's not at your side, asking you out when he finds out you're single, I'll be very much surprised..." she said with a smile.

"You really think he'll ask me out?" Kierra asked, wiping her eyes.

"I'm sure he will" Lily replied. "I mean..between you and Megan...come on...there's no question about it..." Lily said, as Kierra smiled. "There you go!" Lily grinned at her, "don't get upset over it! Just give it some time, that's all!"

"yea, ok...I'll do that.." Kierra said, pulling herself up to change out of her school clothes.

"Gorgeous..." Dominique muttered as she pulled her pajamas on. "just who does he think he is..."

"aww...someone's jealous!" Alice laughed.

"I'm not jealous! I just...he shouldn't be looking at other girls! I was under the impression that he and I were exclusive by now!" Dominique exclaimed as she pulled her nightshirt off, having put it on backwards the first time.

"You are! But still...he's a guy...they look...even if you've been married to them for fifty years...they still look..." Alice said coolly. "You just have to get over it."

"That's disgusting..." Dominique said.

"Yea...well...so are guys.." Lily replied.

"Frank doesn't look at other girls, does he?" Dominique asked.

"I've only caught him a couple of times, in the two years we've been dating...but I didn't make a huge deal out of it...I mean...I know he still loves me..."

"He told you he loved you?" Dominique asked, nearly falling out of her bed.

"Er...yea..a long time ago...D, he and I have been dating for ages..."

Lily snorted. "When are you guys gonna get married anyway? You guys act like a married couple...been acting like that since last year..."

"Oh shut it, Lily..." Alice muttered, turning slightly pink and hiding under her covers.

"Yes, do shut it," Kierra said from underneath her own covers. "I'm trying to get some sleep!"


	13. Chapter 13: Dominique the Dominant

Chapter 13: Dominique the Dominant

"You look positively ravishing" Sirius said, as he met Dominique in the common room the next morning.

Dominique smiled in return. "Thanks…well…shall we?"

"Lets." Soon they were joined by other students as they made their way to the village of Hogsmead.

"Look, there goes Remus and Megan…" Dominique said, pointing to the couple that passed by them several feet away.

"Yea…Megan looks like a keeper, don't you think? Remus seems awfully fond of her." Sirius commented.

"You think so?" Dominique replied, remembering what Kierra had said last night. "well, why don't you just date her if you think she's so hot?" 'oops…' she thought.

"What?" Sirius had stopped walking and looked furiously at her. "Where did you hear that"—

"Don't change the subject! I've got my sources…" Dominique said quickly. Why did she always get so jealous? Why….

"So what if I think she's pretty? I'm not in love with her!" Sirius said hotly.

"Well you don't have to look at her!"

"Where am I supposed to look? She…and girls, for that matter, are everywhere! What am I supposed to do, walk around with my eyes closed?"

"Well…" Dominique said thoughtfully…

"I am NOT going to do that…give me a break Dominique…It's not like I walk around checking other girls out…I mean…attractive girls will walk by…I'll notice…but that's it…I don't give it a second thought…well, just you…I give you plenty of thought…" Sirius said with a wink.

Dominique smiled slightly. "I'm sure…"

"Really…I do…like just yesterday, I was thinking about how lucky I am to have a girlfriend like you…who gets so jealous so easily…and once again, today you prove my point…"

"I do not get jealous…"

"uh huh…yea, right…" Sirius cut her off. "Which reminds me…I owe you a ride, don't I?" he said, kneeling down. "Hop on!"

"No Sirius…that's ok"—

"Come on! Piggy back! My uncle used to give me these all the time when I was little!"

"Let's hope it was when you were little…"

"Get on!" Sirius repeated.

"Ok!" Dominique obeyed and climbed on his back. She screamed as he got up quickly and took hold of her legs.

"Oww..oww…easy on the grip!" Sirius moaned as Dominique had wrapped her arms around his neck too tightly.

"Sorry…" she said apologetically as she loosened her grip.

"It's alright…now…" Sirius cleared his throat, "Thank you for choosing Sirius Express for all your travel needs! Please do not attempt to get off until I've come to a complete stop! Now, our first destination…Honeyduuuuuuuuuuukes!" Sirius shouted as he sped off, causing Dominique to scream again.

"Sirius! Slow down!" Dominique shrieked as he jogged through the crowds of people, some who were looking at them with amusement, others looking confused, and some looking angry ("Mr. Black! Behave your self!" shouted Professor McGonagall).

"No can do! This goes only at one speed!" Sirius laughed.

After hurtling through the masses for several minutes, they finally reached Honeydukes.

"Ok! We're there! Put me down now!" Dominique said breathlessly.

"No, I don't think so…" Sirius said, seemingly not tired at all by running across the village with a girl on his back.

"Sirius!"

"Oy, Hey Remus! Hey Megan!" Sirius said as he entered the store.

"Hey..." Remus said slowly, looking from Sirius to Dominique and raising an eyebrow.

"Well, you see….Dominique got all jealous that I carried Kierra around, so"—

"No I didn't!" Dominique protested, pulling a lock of Sirius' long hair.

"Ow! Don't make me drop you!" Sirius said.

"Why would you be carrying her around?" Remus asked.

"Her leg, remember?" Sirius said, picking up a sugar quill with a few of his free fingers. "Which flavor do you like, Dominique?"

"Strawberry."

"Oh, right…" Remus said, looking annoyed at Sirius.

"So, you two kids having fun?" Sirius asked as they moved along to the chocolate aisle.

"Yea…you guys look like you are as well…" replied Megan.

"yes we are…aren't we, D?" Sirius asked, looking over his shoulder only to bump heads with Dominique.

"Oh yea, barrels of fun…" Dominique said as she squirmed uncomfortably against Sirius.

"Woah…woah…Dominique, if you wanted to get raunchy, you should've waited til we got to a more private place!"

"Oh shut it, you great perv…" Dominique muttered.

"I am not a pervert!" Sirius said indignantly, standing straighter. "I think if anyone's a pervert, it's you…groping me in the public like that…"

"I wasn't groping you!"

"You two are a riot..." Megan laughed.

"Yea, let's leave before this riot gets out of hand…." Remus said, pulling Megan away towards the door. "Bye guys!" he and Megan said together.

As Remus and Megan walked hand in hand towards The Three Broomsticks, Remus thought of the girl who walked with him and chatted animatedly with him.

"Sirius and Dominique are so cute, don't you think?" Megan asked.

"Yea…" Remus laughed lightly, "they are…they…go well together, I think…"

"I think so too…he's a bit hyper though, isn't he, that Sirius?"

"Yes…he is…he's got quite a bit of energy…he and James Potter…they're a pair of clowns, those two…"

Megan laughed. "I was just about to say that. It's funny…you're such good friends with them, yet you're so different…they're so hyper and crazy and…such…wild, trouble makers…whereas, you're just the opposite."

"Are you calling me boring?" Remus asked in a false angry tone.

"No!" Megan laughed, "not at all…you didn't let me finish!"

"Then?"

"You're more calm…and rational…much more coolheaded."

"Thanks." Remus once again looked thoughtfully at her. She was a great girl. She was sweet, funny…beautiful…he was actually having a lot of fun with her. 'Kierra's with Kyle anyway…' Remus thought. 'If she wanted me, she'd probably dump him…'

"Well, we're here.' Remus said as they stopped at the entrance of The Three Broomsticks.

"Could I persuade you to delay our lunch there?" Megan asked, pulling him away and leading him off towards the side wall of Three Broomsticks.

"Er…why?" Remus asked, though part of him knew what was coming, as Megan leaned forward and kissed him in a not very innocent manner on the the cheek.

"Oh…"

Kierra trudged along the aisles of Zonko's, looking at various jokes and pranks. She was bored stiff. Going to Hogsmead was no fun unless you were with your friends, or your significant other. 'Oh that's right…I don't have one…' Kierra thought miserably as she put back a set of fake wands. Dominique was off with Sirius, Alice was off with Frank, and Lily and James were at a Prefects meeting at the Hogsmead local library. At least the librarians there were nicer than Madam Pince at Hogwarts. She would be meeting everyone at The Three Broomsticks for lunch later on, but that was not for another hour. She had quite a bit of time to kill, and she had already gone to most of the interesting shops in Hogsmead. Her thoughts had been interrupted by a pair of footsteps behind her. Kierra whirled around to see Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape.

"Well, well..if it isn't little Miss Quidditch…what do you think you're doing here?" Lucius snarled.

"I can shop wherever I want" Kierra snapped, "What are you two doing here? That Dark Arts shop is over on the next block…"

"Don't take that tone with me, girl…you'll be sorry…"

"What are you gonna do? Throw a bludger at me? You pathetic coward!" Kierra retorted, making a move to leave. Snape however, stood in her way. "Out of my way" she said.

Snape glanced at Lucius, as if for instructions.

"What, can't make up your own mind, eh?" Kierra said. She smiled at Snape and stamped her foot down as hard as she could on his foot, and quickly bolted out the door and turned the first corner she came across. 'Stupid idiots..' she thought, as she felt her back pocket to make sure she had her wand with her, just in case.

After making sure the coast was clear, Kierra walked back out onto the main street and decided to head down to the Three Broomsticks early, and drown her sorrows in a few butterbeers…or in a few firewhiskeys if she could trick the bartender.

Just as the bar came into her view, Kierra noticed two figures standing outside Three Broomsticks, looking heavily occupied.

'Ugh…there's a hotel just down the street, I can't see why they can't get a room…' she thought to herself. But just as she neared The Three Broomsticks, the figures became clearer to her. It was Remus and Megan.

"Eww…" she said aloud, but not loud enough for them to hear, as she was still a few meters away from them. Kierra clenched her fists as she watched Remus pull Megan closer to himself while they kissed.

'I can't watch…' Kierra thought to herself as she marched right into the Three Broomsticks. "Gimme a firewhiskey…" Kierra demanded of the bartender. The bartender looked up at her, a bit taken aback by her rudeness, but seemed to be flattered by it, as if she had just complimented him…as he replied to her. "Sure ma'am…8 sickles.."

Kierra looked up at him, startled. But he had already reached down under the counter to get her drink. Maybe her rudeness made her look older, Kierra thought as she handed the man 8 sickles and taking her drink. She sat down at a large table, enough to fit all the people she was expecting, and popped open her firewhiskey. 'cheers…' she thought miserably.

About half an hour later, Alice and Frank arrived together, dragging behind them, Remus and Megan.

"Look what we found, snogging over on the corner?" Frank said.

Kierra forced a smile as Frank, Alice, Remus and Megan sat down.

"How was your day?" Alice asked, trying to change the subject for Kierra.

"Eh…"

"Did you drink all of these?" asked Frank, pointing at the two empty firewhiskey bottles, and the third one that she was drinking.

"Maybe…"

"Kierra!"

"Cool! I bet you could beat James in a chugging contest!"

"Frank!" Alice scolded.

"Bet I could too…" Kierra said, taking another gulp of her drink.

"Kierra, this stuff is strong! And uh, what if a professor walks in? Shoot, professor Flitwick is just a few tables away!"

"Then don't fuss about it so loudly!" Kierra snapped.

"Are you upset about Kyle?" Frank asked.

"Why, what happened with you and Kyle?" Remus asked.

"They broke up…Kyle told me…" Frank replied.

"No, I'm fine…is he alright?" Kierra asked.

"Yea…he's ok…I mean, he was a bit bored today…he tagged along with us for a while…but he'll get over it soon enough, don't worry…"

Just then, James and Lily walked in together, followed by Peter, who walked in alone.

"Hey kids!" Alice called after them. "How was your meeting?"

"Boring…" James said.

"Oh thanks, Potter…" Lily said nastily.

"Except when you talked, of course…" James said quickly.

Suddenly, Dominique walked in by herself.

"Hey D! Where's Sirius?" Kierra asked.

"What?" Dominique turned around and headed back to the entrance. "Sirius! Quit being such a baby!"

"I am not going in there!" everyone could hear Sirius whining from outside.

"You look fine Sirius! Don't be so self conscious!" Dominique replied, reaching out and grabbing Sirius's hand, and with great effort, she dragged him into the bar.

"What's wrong—oh holy crap!" James gasped as he looked at Sirius.

"I know!" Sirius said, frowning and folding his arms across his chest.

Sirius's long hair was gone. It was now cut short, except around the front, so his hair still fell elegantly over his eyes. (a/n: mmmm….)

"It looks…hiccuppp….great!" Kierra said. The others turned to her.

"Kierra! Are those…firewhiskeys?" Lily said in a whisper.

"yea…and if you even think about telling on me…"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I won't…but don't come crying to me tomorrow morning when you're puking it all up…I for one will not be holding your hair back over the toilet…"

"yea, ok…I'll keep that in mind…" Kierra replied.

"Why'd you cut your hair, Sirius?" Remus asked as Dominique and Sirius joined them.

"I thought it would look nice!" Dominique answered for him. "It does, doesn't it?"

"I miss my hair…" Sirius said, looking out the window mournfully.

"You shouldn't have cut it…" James said, throwing a glare at Dominique, who had gotten up to get everyone's drinks. "Why'd you listen to her?"

Sirius only shrugged and ran his fingers through his short hair.

"Don't worry, I think it looks great" Alice said.

"Yea…me too.." Frank chimed in, "very sexy…" he added with a wink before falling into laughter with Alice.

"Yea…I guess I just need to get used to it…" Sirius said.

James shrugged. "You've got to stop letting her walk all over you…you always let her have it her way…" James stopped at the sound of several bottles of butterbeers clunking onto their table. "Oy, thanks D…" James said.

Dominique sat down next to Sirius, across from James. "Think I'm a spoiled brat or something, do you?" she asked him casually.

"I didn't say that…"

"But you were implying that…"

"Guys…" Lily began but was immediately cut off by James. "Alright, maybe I was!" he retorted, "I just think you should just leave him alone, and let him do what he wants sometimes…you're acting like his mother…"

"I am not!"

"Um…yea you are…

"Am not!"

"Are too! You're always telling him what to do, D! Leave him alone, he's a grown up man!"

"I'm aware of that!"

"Then quit bossing him around and give him room to breathe! ("James, what are you doing?" Sirius hissed)."

"What do you mean, give him room to breathe?"

"I mean, let him alone! You're always with him! You can't even give him a minute to himself!" ("James, I don't mind…" Sirius tried interrupting.)

"I don't ask him to!" Dominique shouted, who was now standing up, "What if he just wants to be with me? Have you got a problem with that?"

"Yea! I do! I do, when you're constantly hogging him for yourself!"

"I'm not hogging anyone for myself! Maybe he just likes me better!"

James snorted. (a/n: he does that a lot, doesn't he? lol) "yea…right…"

"Fine!" Dominique said, grabbing her purse. "I'm out of here…see if he likes you better!" and with that, Dominique stormed out.

"I like them both…" Sirius said helplessly to Remus. They all looked at each other awkwardly for a moment. Finally, Lily broke the silence.

"You're an idiot, Potter, you know that?"

"What?"

"What was the point of blowing up at her like that for?"

"She..she…she's always with him! And she always tells him what to do!" complained James.

"She's not that bossy…" interjected Sirius. "I…I'm flattered that you got all pissed off on my behalf…but…you're making her out to be some horrible witch…and she's not…"

"Yea…easy for you to say…" James muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing…"

"Wanna take a walk outside?"

"Yea, ok…"

As James and Sirius got up and left, the others glanced at each other again. "You know, if I didn't know those two as well as I do, I swear…I'd think they were gay…" Kierra commented, breaking the tension by making everyone laugh.

"Ok, what's with you?" Sirius asked as they came outside.

"Well…it's just that…ever since you started dating her…this whole year…you've been spending so much time with her…we don't hang out as much anymore…I feel like I'm losing you…"

Sirius glanced at James and raised an eyebrow. "I mean as a friend!" James exclaimed.

Sirius laughed, "yea, I know what you meant…look, I understand now how you feel…I'm sorry that you do…but…ok first of all Prongs, you're my best friend…Remus and Peter are too, but I put you even before them, and I always will. That'll never change between us, I hope." James nodded, so Sirius continued, "But…Dominique's important to me too…I mean, of course it doesn't compare to our friendship…but she's important to me…I think I'm in love with her…"

"What?" James snapped.

"I said, I think I'm in love with her…I dunno…maybe I'm just being stupid…but…this is the best relationship I've ever had…I love being with her…she's great…she means a lot to me…so…yea, that means less time with some of my friends…but, it's something I've got to do if I want her…"

"So dump her…"

"But that's how all girls are, Prongs! If you ever get Evans, which you will, man…" Sirius added quickly, patting James on the shoulder, "she's going to be demanding time from you too…but you'll be willing to sacrifice for her, because she's that important to you…does that make sense?" Sirius asked.

"Yea…I guess…" James said. "Sorry…I just didn't like the sudden change…but ok…I'll get used to it…"

"And do me a favor, would you?" Sirius asked.

"Yea, sure Padfoot…"

"Can you at least try to like her?"

"I'll try…"


	14. Chapter 14: What's it Going to Be?

Chapter 14: What's it going to be?   
  
A/N: Long chapter, I know…I stayed up extra late writing it!! You don't wanna know what time it is right now… (wipes sleep from eyes…) ok, im so excited about this chapter so I'm just gonna shut up and let you read! Btw, sorry if some stuff (ie hangover stuff) is inaccurately described…I don't drink and wouldn't really be familiar w/ any of that stuff…just guesswork here…im a good girl, see.. :) newhos:   
  
CH. 14   
  
Dominique lay awake in her bed, staring at the ceiling. It was now 2 a.m. 'Stupid James...urgh...I am too sensitive...' Dominique thought, as she turned over on her side to face Kierra, whose bed was across from hers.   
  
Kierra was sleeping on her stomach, giving muffled coughs every few minutes. Suddenly, Kierra's fits of coughs grew violent, and soon she was sitting up, awake, trying to breathe.   
  
"You alright?" Dominique asked softly, getting out of her bed and going over to Kierra, who was pressing her hands against her head.  
  
"Sick...(Kierra gave another loud cough)...bathroom...puke..." Kierra slurred.  
  
"Come on.." Dominique pulled Kierra up and led her to the bathroom, grabbing her wand on the way. She quickly illuminated the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She looked over at Kierra, who was kneeling over the toilet and vomiting.   
  
"Oh dear..." Dominique quickly went to Kierra's side, pulled off her own hair tie and fastened Kierra's hair with it. She patted her firmly on the back a few times. "There you go...get it out of your system..." Dominique said softly, hoping that Alice and Lily would not wake up. "You ok now?"  
  
Kierra nodded, and with great effort she pulled herself up and went to the sink to clean her mouth. "I hate Remus..." she said wearily as she dried her face with a towel. "Stupid Remus...and his stupid Morgan..."  
  
"I think it's Megan..."  
  
"Oh yea..." Kierra muttered as she slumped against the bathroom floor. Dominique went over and slid down next to her.  
  
"Just give it time..."  
  
"I'm not sure why I'm so pissed...did he do something to me...?" Kierra asked, rubbing her head again.  
  
"You...saw him making out with Megan, as I understand...from what you told us over dinner..."  
  
"Oh that's right...pair of sluts..."  
  
"Kierra..."  
  
"I thought he liked me!"  
  
"He does! ...he probably doesn't realize he does...or maybe...he just doesn't know what he wants...just give it some time, would you?"   
  
"Yea, ok..." Kierra said as she tried getting up, but only stumbled backwards. Dominique reached in time to pull Kierra back up and steady her on her feet.   
  
"Come on, you need some sleep."  
  
"Yea...I had a weird dream..." Kierra said rather loudly, apparently not aware that Alice and Lily were sleeping and that it was night time.   
  
"Did you?" Dominique asked in a whisper as she helped Kierra into her bed.   
  
"Yea...You cut Sirius's hair...and he was crying...and...James...he yelled at you or something...and you started crying...I don't remember...something like that...Wait...did that happen?"  
  
Dominique smiled slightly. "Yea..sort of...only I didn't cut Sirius's hair...a stylist did...and he wasn't really crying, though he was upset...James did yell at me..but I didn't cry...so...you got some of it..."  
  
Kierra shrugged and rested her head against her pillow and pulled her covers up to her chin. "Well...thanks D...night.."  
  
"Anytime..." Dominique said as she made her way to her own bed, suddenly realizing that her James problem wasn't as big as she had thought it was...seeing it in another light.   
  
Kierra's head was buzzing. And she could hear annoying chatter somewhere in the background. She heard her name...something about breakfast. Kierra moaned and pulled her covers over her head, which was throbbing with pain. 'Never...drinking...again...' she thought as she curled into a ball, finally realizing that it was morning and the girls were trying to wake her up.   
  
Minutes later, she heard someone say "let her sleep, she'd had a long night..." It sounded like Dominique. Then she heard someone else, possibly Lily, saying "Alright, but let's come back and check on her if she's not downstairs in an hour..." and with that Kierra heard the door slam, causing the pain in her head to only double in magnitude,   
  
Kierra thought about yesterday. It seemed quite fuzzy. She remembered being bored....stepping on Snape's foot in Zonko's...seeing Remus and Megan make out...she remembered quite a bit of firewhiskey...and yelling...Then she remembered throwing up in the toilet late at night...someone was with her...Dominique...Everything was hazy.  
  
Kierra gave a loud sigh and sat up in her bed. "I need a shower..." she said out loud... "A nice cold shower..." and with that, Kierra stumbled out of bed and hit the bathroom.   
  
Dominique was telling Alice and Lily about Kierra throwing up and being lovesick over Remus, when they were joined by Sirius, Peter and Remus. "Morning boys" Dominique said to them as she glanced up at Sirius to see if he was mad at her. He didn't look at her when he sat down, but he didn't look upset either. Dominique cleared her throat quietly to get Sirius's attention. "You alright?" she asked.   
  
Sirius glanced up at her and looked at her with his grey, unblinking eyes through wisps of black hair that fell over his face. Dominique thanked her lucky stars that she was already sitting, as her knees had gone weak and wouldn't have been able to support her if she were standing. He looked absolutely irresistible when he looked at her like that...it simply melted her heart and made her legs turn to putty. Something of her thoughts must have shown on her face, as Sirius gave her a half smile, and said "I'm alright...are you?"   
  
Dominique smiled and leaned closer to him and said quietly, "yea...it's just that...you look sexy like that..."  
  
"How sexy?"  
  
"very..."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"yea..."  
  
"Enough that you want to"-- Sirius stopped talking, as James had appeared and took a seat next to him. "talk later on then?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Sure..." Dominique said, looking down at her breakfast. Suddenly James cleared his throat and looked at Dominique, who glanced back up at him in surprise.  
  
"Erm...sorry...about...yesterday...." James said slowly.  
  
Dominique looked thoroughly surprised and accidentally swallowed a large chunk of toast without chewing it adequately, but she quickly recovered. "Me too." she said.   
  
"I do look sexy after all..." Sirius said, running his fingers through his hair.   
  
"Seems as though others share that view..." James said, nudging Sirius and indicating at a group of 4th year Ravenclaws who kept ogling at Sirius, and falling into a fit of giggles.   
  
Just then, Kierra came down to join them and sleepily took a seat between Lily and Dominique, not noticing that students giggled as she walked passed them.   
  
"Um...Kierra honey..." Lily said quietly as she leaned closer to her, "your fly's open..."  
  
"Ugh..." Kierra muttered as she tried most discretely to zip up her jeans.  
  
"Someone likes early morning action!" a blonde ravenclaw 7th year said as he passed by, laughing.   
  
"Oh shut up..." Kierra said to her friends, and the marauders, who had all started to laugh as well.  
  
"So, who'd you do?" James asked casually.  
  
"Shut up James" Kierra said, flicking a piece of burnt toast at him.  
  
"Someone's a Miss Cranky pants this morning..." he retorted, picking up the scrap Kierra threw and popping it into his mouth.   
  
"Stop talking so loud!" Kierra snapped.  
  
"I'm not!"  
  
Kierra groaned at James's words, as if he had yelled into her ears. She rubbed her head wearily and took a sip of orange juice.  
  
"I at least thought the cold shower would help...." Kierra muttered.  
  
"How many drinks did you have anyway?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Er...I don't remember...not that many, I don't think..."  
  
"Three..." Remus said without thinking. Everyone looked at him. "You left your bottles lying around..."  
  
"Oh..."  
  
"Just three?" James scoffed.   
  
"I could've had more if I wanted..."  
  
"Good thing you didn't...or you would've been kneeling over the toilet longer last night..." Dominique said in a disapproving tone.  
  
"Three firewhiskeys did you in? Just three? geez Nakofsky, I know you're a girl and all, but I thought at least you were built tougher..." James laughed.  
  
"James!" Lily scolded, but Kierra interrupted.  
  
"You trying to say girls are weak?? I bet any of us could take on any of you...any time..."  
  
"but I don't like to drink..." Alice interrupted.  
  
"Me neither..." Lily chimed in.   
  
"Well, if only three drinks can do you in," James continued, ignoring Alice and Lily, "shoot, even Remus could beat you..."  
  
"Should I be offended?" Remus asked aloud.  
  
"I think you're supposed to be...but I dunno..." Peter said.  
  
"Tell ya what...we'll see how long you all can last..." James said, "end of midterms, we'll have ourselves a little party...see how much you can handle..."  
  
"A party? In the common room?" Alice asked.  
  
"Yea...nice way to end the term..." Sirius said.  
  
"I love it..." Dominique said excitedly.  
  
"I hate it..." Lily said, "James! We are head boy and girl!! We cannot go around having a party!! What about the younger students?? And um, WE'RE not supposed to be having alcohol either!!"  
  
"We could make it VIP..." Dominique suggested, "invite...I dunno...4th year and above? And only invite the ones we know won't rat us out...we can havem sign their names on a jinxed parchment....just to seal them in?"   
  
"Brilliant!" James exclaimed.  
  
"I don't think"--  
  
"Oh come on, loosen up Lily!" Dominique protested.  
  
Lily sighed in defeat. "Fine..."   
  
"Did someone say something about a party?" Kierra asked, rubbing her temples.  
  
"You're a quick one..." Sirius said. "Boy...only three drinks...and it did that much to ya..."  
  
"I'm heading out guys, I've got arithmancy!" Lily announced as she rushed out of the great hall with Alice.   
  
"Speaking of which, we should head to care of magical creatures." Kierra said as she grabbed her bag.  
  
"Well, somebody's getting back into their senses" James laughed.   
  
"Thank God...I'll need them to get through today's lessons..." Kierra muttered as she walked out with Dominique, with James, Peter, Sirius and Remus following close behind.  
  
Later that day, Kierra sat in Ancient Runes, doodling flowers around the edges of her notebook. She usually enjoyed Runes, but today they were just reviewing for their upcoming exam...she knew the stuff for this class backwards and forwards and quickly lost her interest in the lecture. Besides, her head was still pounding.   
  
Suddenly Kierra noticed a shadow that lay on her notebook. It was someone's silhouette. She recognized it immediately. Kierra turned to an empty page in her notebook and began to trace it. She sighed quietly as she traced the shadow's neck. It wasn't too long...nor too short...it was the perfect length....she would kill to be able touch the real version.   
  
Just then, Kierra felt a scrap of parchment wiz by her. She glanced at where it came from-it was Snape, sending a note to James. Kierra glanced over at James and craned her neck over to see what Snape had written to him. It was a drawing of a girl, with bright red hair, and underneath the picture were the words 'Potter's mudblood girlfriend'.   
  
Before Kierra realized what was going on, James was standing over Snape and holding him by the collar.  
  
"Do NOT call her a mudblood!! And she is NOT my girlfriend either!!" James shouted.  
  
"Mr. Potter!!" Professor Montrell exclaimed.   
  
"Oh that's right, you wish she was…" Snape replied, reaching desperately in his robes for his wand. However, James threw Snape on the floor and pulled out his own wand.   
  
"Mr. Potter!! NO"—  
  
Too late. There was a loud eruption from James's wand, and a second later, Snape was running around in circles screaming frantically; his hair was on fire.   
  
Professor Montrell knocked James out of the way and tried to put out the fire with water from his wand, but the fire remained burning in Snape's hair.  
  
"Everlasting flamer…" Sirius muttered in awe, "nice one Prongs…"  
  
"Come with me to the hospital wing, Mr. Snape…You Potter! Detention!! Rest of the week!! None of you move until I get back!!" Professor Montrell shouted as he escorted Snape out of the classroom.  
  
"That was wicked…" Sirius exclaimed, extending his hand out to give James a high five, but James did not return it. He was shaking with anger. "Oy, you alright there?"  
  
"Bloody coward…stupid…pathetic….no good coward…" James muttered as he grabbed his things.   
  
"James, where are you going?" Remus asked, getting up.   
  
"For a walk…needa cool down…" and with that, James left the classroom.  
  
"That was something…wasn't it…" Dominique said, glancing at Sirius.  
  
"Yea…a bit dangerous though…he could've killed ol Snivellus…I mean…he's so greasy…there could've been an explosion or something…." And with that the whole class burst into laughter, except for the small group of Slytherins that sat in the back of the classroom.   
  
Soon the amusement of James's hex wore away, and everyone in the class began chatting with his or her friends, while they waited for Professor Montrell to return. Sirius, Dominique and Remus were discussing the upcoming post-midterm party. Peter, who sat next to Kierra, tried to engage conversation with her, but failed as he saw that she preferred to doodle than to talk to him. Thus he abandoned his attempts and joined his friends in the party planning, leaving Kierra alone with her drawing.   
  
Kierra had returned to her silhouette. Though the shadow was gone, she had traced the entire shape, and had just begun to retrace over the lines to make them more distinct, when suddenly a hand swooped down in front of her and snatched her notebook up.   
  
"Well…not only are you a little quidditch star…but you're an artist too!" Lucius Malfoy exclaimed.  
  
"Give it back…" Kierra said quietly, determined to keep this between her and Malfoy.   
  
"Isn't it lovely?" Lucius said, holding the notebook of out Kierra's reach and waving it to Mark Crabbe and Lewis Goyle, fellow Slytherins, who laughed at the drawing.   
  
"Hmm…this silhouette looks so familiar…whose could it be?" Lucius asked with a smirk.  
  
"What is he doing?" Kierra could hear Dominique whispering to Sirius.  
  
"Give it back…" Kierra repeated, making a grab for her notebook but Lucius once again pulled it out of her reach.   
  
"No, no…let's see who this is…she's done it so perfectly…looks like a boy…someone you fancy, I bet…"  
  
"Give it back to her, Malfoy!" Sirius ordered, striding over to Lucius with an arm out.   
  
Lucius looked back at the notebook. "Well, it's not Black…his nose is too sharp…" he said smiling, ducking down just in time to miss a punch from Sirius. He quickly went to the other side of the room.   
  
"Well…it's definitely not Peter…his chin is too round…."  
  
"Give it back to me!!" Kierra shouted, lunging towards Lucius, who backed up against the wall, right next to Remus. Lucius glanced up at him and back down at the silhouette. "Ah! We have a match!" Lucius announced, holding Kierra's notebook up to Remus's face, only to show that the profiles matched exactly. "What an artist!" Lucius said, smiling evilly at Kierra as he pushed the notebook back into her hands.  
  
Kierra's eyes were rimmed with tears. "You asshole…" she said. Wanting nothing more than to hurt Lucius Malfoy, and getting as far away from Remus as possible, Kierra did the only thing she could think to do. She kicked her leg up, shoving her knee in right between Malfoy's legs. Lucius gasped in pain, and holding his crotch he collapsed to the ground. Without looking at anyone else, Kierra bolted out of the classroom.   
  
The class stood in awkward silence for a moment, with the exception of Lucius's moaning, and the Slytherins trying to help him up. Immediately though, Dominique stepped forward and began to march out of the classroom in search of Kierra, but someone pulled her back.  
  
"No, let me…."  
  
Dominique nodded and stepped back as she watched Remus sprint out of the classroom.   
  
(a/n: hats fly up and everyone cheers…hold on, there's more!!)  
  
Remus looked to his left, then to his right. There was absolutely no one in the halls.   
  
"Kierra!! Kierra!!!" Remus called as he walked down the empty corridors. 'Of course..' he thought, as he ran to the portrait hole.  
  
"hodgepodge!" he shouted at the fat lady. Remus ran up the stairs to the boys' dormitory and collapsed at James' trunk. He quickly opened it and found at the top what he was looking for.  
  
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Remus said quickly as he tapped the piece of parchment. Remus quickly scanned the map and stopped when he saw a dot labeled "Kierra" outside. She was heading towards the quidditch field. Remus folded up the map and tapped it again, "Mischief managed" he muttered and he tossed it back into James's trunk.   
  
By the time Remus got outside, he was out of breath. He scanned the field, and quickly spotted Kierra, trudging along the pitch, notebook in hand. Remus quickened his pace to catch up with her.   
  
"Kierra!! Wait!!"   
  
Kierra whirled around, her eyes widening slightly in surprise to see Remus.   
  
"Hey…." Remus breathed as he finally caught up to her.   
  
Remus glanced up at the sky. It had started to rain. "Maybe we should go inside…" he said slowly, not being able to think of anything else to say.  
  
"You go on…I'm alright…" Kierra replied quietly, looking at the grass. It blew gently against the winds, tickling her ankles. Remus stepped closer to her. His brain seemed to have jammed up…he didn't know what to say now...  
  
"You like me?" he blurted out before he realized what he had said.   
  
If Kierra was surprised by him, she did not show it. She continued to stare at the grass. "yea…" she said automatically, but she looked up at him quickly and retracted what she said, "no…no…not anymore…I mean…um…"   
  
As Kierra stammered, trying to take back her 'yes', Remus's stomach did a backflip, but then seemed to turn to jello. Megan. He was with her now. "Now you tell me…" he accidentally muttered out loud. "I mean"—  
  
"scuse me?"   
  
"I…um…" It was too late. There was no use of going behind Megan's back. He did not want to hurt her. "I'm with Megan now…I like her…we're having fun"—  
  
"Oh yea, you made that quite obvious when you were feeling her up in Hogsmead!" Kierra snapped.   
  
"You saw that??" Remus said hotly. It was raining harder outside, winds blowing harder. It was freezing, but Remus seemed to be feeling very warm at the moment.   
  
"Yea…well…it was hard to miss…right in a public place you know…next time, get a room!"  
  
"You know…I came down here to be nice to you, comfort you"—  
  
"I don't need your comfort!" Kierra retorted.   
  
"I wanted to tell you I liked you too!!" Remus shouted over the clap of thunder that had just struck.  
  
"What's the point if you're gonna talk about Megan?!" Kierra yelled without thinking.  
  
"I just thought"—  
  
"Oh I doubt you were doing that!" Kierra's tongue seemed to move on its own accord.  
  
"You know what?? Don't get mad at me about this! It's not my fault!"  
  
"You think it's mine??" Kierra asked.  
  
"If you liked me, you could've said something! You only had this whole school year!! But no…instead, you go off with that Kyle…what am I supposed to do? While you were running around having fun with him, I had to sit around and bid my time, and wait for you to break up with him…and now when you do, I've landed myself another girl…I can't just go break up with her…"  
  
"Fine!!!"  
  
"It's too late now…you should've said something! Then we wouldn't have been in this mess!"  
  
"It's just your mess, Remus!" Kierra exclaimed, hugging herself from the cold. "I am perfectly content!"  
  
"Fine, I don't know why I bothered then!" Remus shouted back as the howling wind swallowed his words.   
  
"I don't know either!! What are you doing?!"  
  
Remus stepped up closer, and pulled Kierra up against his body and pressed his trembling lips against hers. Bolts of lightening lit up the sky and thunder stuck yet again; the two seemed oblivious to it all.   
  
Remus pressed forcefully against her lips, as if to make a statement, but soon he found himself clinging to Kierra's mouth as if holding on for dear life. His want for her only increased when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him even closer to her. Remus desperately explored her mouth with his tongue, which she allowed with equal anticipation. As his fingers slid up her shirt, he felt her icy cold skin. He immediately reached on either side of him his cloak and wrapped it around the two of them.   
  
At long last, they pulled away from each other, panting for air.   
  
It was nearly 7 o' clock. The great hall was slowly beginning to empty out, and Dominique, Sirius, and Peter were recounting the entire incident in Runes to Lily, Alice and James.  
  
"I always knew that Kierra liked him…" James said boastfully. "Kept it to myself of course…teased her all the time…but kept it a secret all the same…"  
  
"You don't have to be a butt hole about it" Lily said with a tone of annoyance. James looked up at Lily with surprise at first, but his curious look turned into a frown, and he quickly got up and walked away, leaving Lily to stare after him in disbelief.  
  
"Did I…actually…push the right buttons?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows.  
  
"You know what Evans, I think you did…" Sirius said. "Well, makes sense that he'd get mad, seeing as how he got detention because of you…"  
  
"Me?? How??"  
  
"In runes…before this whole Kierra/ Remus fiasco, James got detention for defending you…" and Sirius proceeded to explain Snape's crude drawing and James's hex.   
  
"You mean, he actually…honestly…told someone I wasn't his girlfriend??" Lily asked in disbelief, turning to Dominique and Peter for confirmation, which they nodded to.  
  
"Wow.." Lily murmured, deeply impressed. She snapped back into her senses quickly though, getting up and running out of the great hall. Minutes later she reappeared with James by her side.   
  
"I'm sorry…" Lily said as she and James sat back down, "I didn't know about Snape…thanks for…defending me…and…well, being honest about not being your girlfriend…I'm so sorry about you got detention…"  
  
Immediately, James's face lit up and a grin covered his beet red face. "I don't mind…" he said in a floaty voice…he seemed to have reached the highest heavens.   
  
"Er…so do Kierra and Remus really like each other?" Peter asked in a disappointed voice.  
  
"Dude, were you not listening?" Sirius asked with disbelief. "Of course they do! Why do you think Remus went and ran after her?"  
  
"Which reminds me" Dominique interrupted, glancing around the great hall, "where are they??"  
  
Everyone exchanged mischievous grins around the table. "Remus…that dog!!" James laughed.   
  
Dominique rolled her eyes. "They've been gone for like almost an hour! Something's not right…maybe we should go look for them…"  
  
"Yea, ok…" Sirius said, and they all got up and headed towards the door.  
  
Just then, Kierra and Remus appeared at the door, soaked to the bone and shivering.   
  
"Oh my!! You guys were out in that weather the whole time??" Dominique exclaimed.  
  
"Y-y-yea…" Kierra said through chattering teeth.  
  
"Let's get you a change of clothes…" Lily said, taking Kierra by the arm with Alice.   
  
"I'll go get you some dinner…" Dominique said as she headed back to the great hall.   
  
"Yea…you could do with a change as well…" James said to Remus. "Come on, Sirius and I will take you up. Peter, wanna get him some dinner?"  
  
"Sure!" Peter said as he quickly followed Dominique back into the great hall.  
  
Half an hour later, after a warm shower, Kierra felt revived and she bounded out the bathroom.   
  
"Amazing what a warm shower can do…" Alice said, offering Kierra some dinner.   
  
"I know…" Kierra smiled as she took her plate from Alice.   
  
"Ok…so is this story gonna be good or bad??" Dominique asked anxiously.  
  
"Good…" Kierra replied.  
  
"Excellent! I've got butterbeers!" Dominique shouted, reaching into her trunk and passing each girl a bottle.  
  
"Ok, ok!! Tell us what happened!!" Lily said excitedly.  
  
"You better now?" Sirius asked, tossing Remus a clean t-shirt.   
  
"Yea…much better, thanks…" Remus replied, pulling the t-shirt over his head.  
  
"So you like her back?" James asked as he took a piece of chicken from Remus's dinner.  
  
Remus nodded.  
  
"Did you guys kiss?" Peter asked.  
  
Remus nodded again.  
  
"And then…out of nowhere…he just grabbed me….and kissed me…" Kierra sighed.  
  
Lily, Alice, and Dominique sat on the edge of Lily's bed, staring at Kierra wide eyed. "wow…" the three murmured in unision.  
  
"How was it?" Dominique asked excitedly.   
  
Kierra closed her eyes and smiled dreamily. "I dunno how you describe a kiss like that….he just…forced it on me…it was angry, you know? But then he softened up a little…and then went….I dunno…needy…you know? Ahh…it was just so nice…."  
  
"Did he"—  
  
"tongue? Yes…"  
  
The four girls lifted their butterbeers and cheered.   
  
"How was it?" James asked.  
  
Remus looked at him, Peter and Sirius thoughtfully. After a moment of consideration, he said, "pretty hot…"  
  
"Niice…" the three boys said in unison.  
  
"Tongue?" Sirius asked.  
  
Remus nodded.  
  
"Double nice…" the boys said together.   
  
"I can't believe it….you two are finally together!!" Lily exclaimed as she drained the last of her butterbeer.  
  
"It seemed like only yesterday you were running around, stalking him…" Alice laughed.   
  
"Ok…that was last year!" Kierra laughed.  
  
"I know, I know, I'm teasing…well…I'm really glad you two are finally together," Alice said.  
  
"Yea, I know…finally…" Kierra sighed.  
  
"So what about Megan?" Sirius asked.  
  
"I dunno…" Remus replied. "I like her too…"  
  
"You can't have two girlfriends, mate…" James said.  
  
"I know," Remus sighed. "It would make things a helluva lot easier if I could…"  
  
"More fun too" Peter said thoughtfully.  
  
"Please don't interpret that" Remus said, causing Sirius and James to laugh.  
  
"So who's it gonna be?" Sirius asked.  
  
"I don't know."   
  
aaaah u know u wanna review! :P 


	15. Chapter 15: Cheater

A/N: I seriously couldn't get creative w/ the titles...ah well... newhos, in response to the reviews and emails thus far:  
  
-I'm new to the site, so I've had issues w/ getting things up around here...particularly the formatting...so it's crappy, I'm sorry!! go to and read my story in the proper format (pen name there is joliefille252) in the meantime...cuz I'm too ditzy to fix it up on this site...I'll try though when I get the chance!  
  
-I did post up the first 13 chapters of this fic at once...but I didn't write them all at once. I've originally been writing for , but someone asked me to post here, so that's what I'm doing...and so I've been writing these chapters one by one, and had been posting them on that site one by one...er what else...  
  
-About Sirius finding out about Dominique's ex: If you read the other fic, Long Lost Love, you'd know! No pressure though, this one comes chronologically first anyway :) but I'll be getting to it in this fic...  
  
And just a side note, I have limited computer access these days and I'm also going to be moving soon, so these next few weeks I probably can't update as often.  
  
ok, here we go!  
  
Chapter 15: Cheater  
  
The next morning at breakfast, Remus could only pick at his scrambled eggs. His stomach gave a low rumble, but he could not get himself to eat, he was too anxious.   
  
"What's up Moony? You don't look well." James said, looking critically at Remus.   
  
"Full moon"--  
  
"Isn't for a few weeks" James finished. "What's wrong?" he persisted.  
  
"Worried about Megan and Kierra?" Sirius asked. Remus nodded. Peter sighed loudly.   
  
"Wish I had your problems, Moony," he said, "two beautiful girls fighting over me...I'd love that..." Peter said wistfully.  
  
"They're not fighting over me...Megan doesn't even know about Kierra"--  
  
Sirius sputtered. "Good gosh Moony, you're cheating on Megan!"  
  
"I am not!" Remus said hotly, "I haven't done anything with Kierra! Except"--  
  
"Except you made out with her yesterday." Sirius laughed.   
  
"Who'd ever thought our lil Remus would be such a slimeball" James said with an amused look, "I mean, I thought if any of us would be cheating, womanizers, it would be Sirius!"  
  
"I, a womanizer??" Sirius exclaimed.  
  
"No, I mean...you're like the most good looking guy in the school...so...you could...but ever since you reeled in Dominique of course, I don't think you would..." James said, patting Sirius on the shoulder, "but I mean...Remus, of all people..."  
  
"Look, I didn't mean to do anything...it was just the heat of the moment," Remus said, glaring at his friends as they fell into laughter, "we were both really angry...it just sort of happened...we weren't really thinking.."  
  
"Ok, fine...you weren't cheating on Megan," Sirius laughed, "you were just...experimenting with Kierra...I'm kidding!" Sirius exclaimed when Remus gave him a pained look.   
  
"Here comes one of your girlfriends now!" James said, pointing at Kierra, who had just walked into the great hall with her friends. Remus looked up. They were heading their way.   
  
"Shit..what do I do??" Remus asked suddenly. He didn't know how to act around her now.  
  
"Good question" James said, turning to Sirius. "How do you act around a girl you just made out with but you weren't supposed to because you already have a girlfriend?"  
  
Sirius shrugged. "Beats me."  
  
"Quick, one of you punch me!" Remus said.  
  
"What? Why??" James asked.  
  
"Then I can go to the hospital wing!"  
  
"You're acting like she's got coodies or something," Sirius said, "get a grip. Just pretend you haven't seen her yet. Let her approach you."  
  
"Good idea." Remus said as he quickly busied himself with his breakfast.   
  
"Hey." Remus looked up. Kierra just sat down across from him.   
  
"Hey" he replied nervously.  
  
"I was wondering," she began, nervously twirling a lock of hair around her finger, "Erm...can we talk..um.." Kierra stopped and glanced down the table. Remus's friends, as well as hers were watching them with much interest. As soon as she and Remus had looked at them, they immediately began to converse animatedly.   
  
"So! We're playing Ravenclaw this weekend...how exciting!" Sirius exclaimed loudly.  
  
"I know, I can't wait!" James said cheerfully.   
  
"Um...yea..." Remus said, turning back to Kierra. "So...we should talk...about"-  
  
"Morning Remus!" came a voice behind them. It was Megan; and she brushed a lock of shiny blonde hair over her shoulder and took a seat next to Remus, giving him a kiss on the cheek.   
  
"Hi Megan" Remus said quietly, smiling at her. For the first time in his life, Remus wished it were a full moon, and that he were outside in the shrieking shack, not human; away from everyone.   
  
"Alright there Kierra?" Megan asked, looking across the table at her. Remus glanced up at Kierra. She had gone pale. She gave Remus a quick look, which seemed to say 'you jerk' before she smiled at Megan and said "yea, I'm fine". Kierra got up quickly. "Well, I think I'm gonna head over to potions.."  
  
"But you haven't even touched your breakfast!" Lily called after her.  
  
"I'm not hungry!" Kierra shouted back as she strode out of the great hall. James quickly got up and followed her out.   
  
"Hey Kierra, you ok?" James said as he caught up to her.  
  
"Yea, I'm fine" Kierra said dully.   
  
"Look, he hasn't told Megan yet that he likes you. I'm sure he will though."  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
"I dunno..he will...look just give him some time to sort out his feelings...he's a bit confused, that's all..."  
  
"Yea...you're right.." Kierra muttered as they walked into the potions class 10 minutes early.  
  
"What are you doing here so early?" Professor Keifer snapped as he got up from his desk. "Your lot usually comes in 10 minutes late!"  
  
"We didn't feel up to breakfast, that's all." James said quickly.  
  
"Don't lie to me Potter. You two are up to something! Just admit it before I give you two detentions!"   
  
"Ok, first of all, we're not up to anything! You can question us with vertiserum if you want! And secondly, you can't give me detention! I'm busy!" James said defiantly.  
  
"Really? And what are your plans?" Professor Keifer said, squinting at him as if to read his mind.  
  
"I'm booked for the next two weeks." James said coolly, "I've got detention with you this week, plus with McGonagall the week after."  
  
"Oh that's right! Well then, any funny business and it's points off, got it?"  
  
"Yea, ok.." James said as he grinned at Kierra. She couldn't help but smile back. He always took his punishments so lightly.  
  
"Ok, I need to figure this once in for all" Remus said, as he and his friends walked outside. "I need to pick one."  
  
"So pick away..." Sirius said.   
  
"A little help would be nice" Remus said, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Ok...um...I dunno, how do we help?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Maybe you should just weigh out the pros and cons of each girl..." Peter suggested as they walked up the stone steps to head back to the common room.  
  
The boys all turned to him. "Good idea!" Sirius said, clearly surprised that Peter had been able to think of that on his own, "ok do cons first, because they're easier."  
  
"Right...um ok, Kierra...what's wrong with her?" James asked.  
  
"Oh"-- Remus snapped his fingers, "she's a bit ditzy...causes an accident in potions nearly every time..."  
  
"Well she wasn't that bad today!" James said, "at least she dropped her cauldron after Professor Keifer checked her potion! She didn't have to start over this time."  
  
"True..." Remus said.  
  
"Well, what else?" Peter asked, "What else bothers you about her?"  
  
"Um...let's see...oh, ok..she's really short tempered..."  
  
Sirius laughed. "Yea, that's true...I think she could set a world record in the number of fits and tantrums...kind of makes her seem a bit childish..." Sirius added thoughtfully.  
  
"Yea, she does seem a bit immature sometimes..." Remus said slowly, considering the matter for a moment. "What?" Remus asked, as Peter nudged him hard in the ribs. They had reached the top of the stairs, and right at the very top step, staring angrily at Remus, stood Kierra.   
  
"Kierra!" Remus said. He had frozen in his spot. 'Please don't tell me you heard everything...' he thought desperately. Kierra removed her hands from her hips and took a few steps towards them.   
  
"Remus!" Kierra said smiling, in a voice that didn't seem her own. "So, you think I'm ditzy? Immature? Short tempered??"   
  
"No!" Remus blurted. "I...erm...well..." He turned to his friends for help.   
  
Sirius stepped up. "See, you've misunderstood"-  
  
"Oh of course I have!" shouted Kierra, "After all, I'm a complete idiot! Yes Black, please enlighten me...what did he mean??"  
  
"Er.."  
  
"See, he was just comparing you and Megan...he was trying to choose!!" piped up Peter.  
  
"Oh, brilliant move Wormtail..." muttered James.  
  
"Is that so?" Kierra asked, turning to Remus. "Well, what flaws did you pick out of Megan?"  
  
"Er..we...hadn't gotten to her yet..." Remus stammered. 'No..why did I say that???' Remus felt like throwing himself down the stairs.  
  
"Oh yea, I just had too many flaws to list huh?" Kierra spat. "Well tell you what I'll make it easy for you. Just take her. I don't want you."  
  
"What?? No...Kierra, please...wait!!" Remus made to chase after Kierra down the stairs, but it was too late. Kierra was already halfway down the staircase when it decided to shift, making it impossible for Remus to catch up with her.  
  
"Great..." he muttered.   
  
"Well...at least you don't have to worry about choosing..." James said helplessly. "I mean, you like Megan too, don't you."  
  
"Yea..." said Remus, turning back to his friends to walk to the common room. "She's great."  
  
"Sirius, stop it."  
  
"No."  
  
"Madam Pince is looking at us."  
  
"Oh." Sirius stopped rubbing his foot along Dominique's leg. He glanced over at the librarian, Madam Pince, who had just given him a warning look. "Hey," he started up again. "I've got to find a book on the next floor. Come with me."  
  
Dominique followed Sirius out of their cozy alcove and up the wooden steps that led to the 3rd floor of the library. "Er, which book is it now?" Dominique asked, glancing down the endless aisles of books.  
  
"Oh...there isn't any..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You think I dragged you up here to find a bloody book? Gimme a break." Sirius said, pulling Dominique into the restricted section.  
  
"You know we'd be in enough trouble for just being in this section? I can't imagine what Madam Pince would do if she found us...doing whatever's on your mind." Dominique said.   
  
"I think it's worth the risk" Sirius said, backing her up into a table. He picked her up a few inches and placed her on top.  
  
"Sirius, we should be studying."  
  
"Let's study each other." Sirius replied, leaning in between her legs, closing his eyes for a kiss.   
  
"That was so lame!" Dominique said, laughing.  
  
"Oh shut up" he said, planting his lips on hers. Seconds later, he pulled away from her. "Alright," he said, "I've got a better one."  
  
"Shoot".  
  
"I want you to teach me some tricks."  
  
Dominique laughed again. "That was even worse. I think you're losing your touch, Mr. Black."  
  
Sirius frowned and pulled Dominique closer, making her sit on the very edge of the table. "Well, pick up lines aren't my specialty. That's James's territory."  
  
"And what's yours?"  
  
"Flattery is among one of my many talents."  
  
"What are your other talents?"  
  
"Well...oh nevermind.."  
  
"No, what?" Dominique asked, smiling, her eyes widening slightly with curiosity.  
  
"Nothing..."  
  
"Come on, tell me!"  
  
"I won't tell you, darling, but I'll show you..." Sirius answered, pushing Dominque down gently on the table and climbing on top of her.  
  
"Hey, that was much better!" Dominique giggled as Sirius kissed her neck.  
  
"Thank you dear. I guess James is gonna have some competition..."  
  
"I didn't say it was good, I said it was better!" Dominique replied. Sirius pulled away from Dominique and hopped off the table.   
  
"Alright...you just lost your chance of a lifetime..." he said nonchalantly.   
  
"Sirius! I was just joking!" Dominique laughed as she got up from the table as well and followed Sirius down the stairs.  
  
"Another time my dear...you're just going to have to wait!" Sirius said as he headed out the library.   
  
"You're kidding, right?"  
  
"Not at all." Sirius said as they reached the common room. "I've got a date with James, and you with Lily, am I right?"  
  
"I wouldn't call it a date"-  
  
"All the same...well, I'll see you." Sirius said. Dominique looked at him curiously, as if trying to make him out. He just loved throwing girls off and messing with their heads. It was stupid really, but he got quite a kick out of it. Right before Sirius turned to leave he wrapped his arms around Dominique's waist and gave her a long, deep kiss. "That should keep you sustaining for the next few hours!" he said with a grin as he turned to leave.  
  
"You are so weird sometimes..." Dominique said with a look of uncertainty. Nonetheless, she smiled and waved as she headed downstairs to find Lily.   
  
As Dominique walked down the hallway, she realized that she needed to go to restroom and so she took a quick detour and headed to the nearest bathroom. Inside, she found Lily and Alice standing around Kierra, who was crying.   
  
"Oh my God, what happened??" Dominique asked.  
  
"You explain.." Kierra cried, nudging Lily, who sighed and turned to Dominique. She proceeded to explain the conversation Kierra overheard.  
  
"That idiot!!" exclaimed Dominique. "What an idiot...And those dolt of friends of his didn't even say anything??"  
  
Kierra shook her head. "They were the ones egging him on, asking him what he didn't like about me..."  
  
"Those morons..." said Alice.  
  
"I can't believe this...that was so shallow and you to Megan??" exclaimed Lily.  
  
"I know...and...of all people...Remus...I wouldn't have expected him to be so stupid..." Dominique said.  
  
"Nor I" said Lily.   
  
"Ugh..I hate him!" Kierra cried. "And Sirius!"  
  
"Er, Sirius? What did he do?" Dominique asked.  
  
"He kept saying bad things about me too!!"  
  
"What???" Dominique shouted.  
  
Kierra nodded and told her how Sirius called her childish and said she threw fits and tantrums.   
  
"That numbskull!! I was just with him before I came here, and he was acting like nothing happened! He didn't say anything to me!!" said Dominique.  
  
"Nothing??" Lily asked.  
  
"No!! He was trying to make out with me in the library...after what just happened?? Urgh I am gonna kill him...that selfish idiot!!" Dominique said angrily as she stormed out of the bathroom. Lily and Alice made to follow after her but Kierra cried again. "Guys don't leave me in here by myself!!"  
  
The portrait hole opened up and Dominique walked into the common room. "Remus John Lupin!!!" she roared as she went up to where he and his friends sat. "Er..hi..." he said nervously. "Ow!!!" Dominique had slapped Remus on the arm. "You dolt!!! How could you do that to Kierra?! Making a pros and cons list??? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life!!!!"  
  
Remus stared at her in utter fear. He had only seen her angry once, when they were about four. It wasn't pretty either. Dominique wheeled around and turned to the rest of the boys, who all immediately cowered in front of her.  
  
"I didn't say anything, honest!!" James said pleadingly. "I love Kierra, she's like my little sister!!"   
  
"Suck up..." Sirius muttered.  
  
Dominique turned to face Sirius. "Better than how you've been acting!!! Childish?? What gives you a right to call her that, huh?? When you...your friends are going through something so horrible... and you're so selfish you brush it aside just to go make out in the library!!!"  
  
"It wasn't that horrible...honestly, D...you're blowing this a bit out of proportion......ok, no you're not!" Sirius said, backing away from Dominique as she attemped to hit him. "You all are a bunch of idiots!!!" Dominique shouted, and turning to Remus again, she said "And don't even think about trying to talk to her until you decide to grow up!!" and with that, Dominique turned on her heel and stormed out, with everyone gazing at the marauders.  
  
"See..we're practicing for a play...she's good isn't she?" Sirius said quickly to all the students who were gaping at them. "Alright, show's over, move along now, or our head boy here will give you a detention!" Sirius said, patting James on the shoulder.  
  
Remus was only relieved that Megan was not among the gaping students.   
  
"Dominique...please talk to me..."  
  
Dominique glared at Sirius before returning to her homework.   
  
"Look...I'm sorry...I really am...I feel bad...I shouldn't have said anything about Kierra...specially considering how childish I can be sometimes..."  
  
"You are awfully childish at times..." Dominique said coldly.   
  
"Yea..exactly...I'm gonna say sorry to Kierra as soon as she comes up here. Seriously..."  
  
"You mean it?"   
  
"Yes...I do...I really feel terrible about it..."  
  
"Well now's your chance." Dominique said, nudging towards the portrait hole. Kierra had just walked in with Alice and Lily. Sirius cleared his throat and walked up to them.   
  
"Er...Kierra...can I have a word with you?" he said quietly.  
  
Lily and Alice looked at Kierra for instructions. She simply nodded at them and they left to join Dominique, though they glared at him as they left.  
  
"Um...listen...about today...I'm really sorry...I had no right to say anything about you...would you...please forgive me?"   
  
Kierra looked up at him. Her eyes had softened up a bit. "Yea..." she muttered. "Anyway it's not you I hate.." she said.  
  
"Listen, Remus didn't mean it...He was just"--  
  
"Confused? Right...I was confused about him too, when I was dating Kyle...but I didn't go finding each of their flaws before deciding to dump Kyle."   
  
"You're right. But"-  
  
"Forget it. I've lost my interest in him. And my respect for him too, for that matter." Kierra said as she marched up to the girls' dormitory.   
  
Sirius sighed and went to join the girls. "She really hates him."  
  
"I don't blame her" Dominique said, not looking up from her books.  
  
"Maybe there's still some hope for them." Sirius said.  
  
"Are you kidding me?" Alice said in disbelief. "What Remus said was really mean"--  
  
"But he didn't mean to be mean!" Sirius said impatiently. "He just made a dumb mistake! We can still get them together!"  
  
"Are you trying to play matchmaker?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"No...the match has already been made...they just need someone to push them together..."  
  
"What about Megan?" Alice asked.   
  
Sirius shrugged. "We'll figure out what to do with her later..."  
  
"Ok, so what's your plan?" Dominique asked.   
  
Sirius glanced at her. "I dunno...are we ok?"  
  
"I never said that."  
  
"I won't say the plan then."  
  
"Fine, we're ok then!" Dominique said, rolling her eyes.  
  
"Say it like you mean it."   
  
"We're ok." Dominique said, forcing a smile at him.   
  
"Let's kiss on it."  
  
"hello!!!!" Lily interrupted. "Later Black!!"  
  
Sirius shook his head. "No...now..."  
  
"Fine!" Dominique got up and sat next to him. She put her hands on his face and drew him in for a kiss.   
  
"Ugh..." Lily and Alice said together as they turned away. Finally, Dominique let go of Sirius, who was now slightly dazed.   
  
"Right..your plan then?" Dominique asked.  
  
"Er...right..." he said, blinking a few times. "Um, oh yea...so, our end-of-midterms party is tomorrow night...I think we could get something going then..."  
  
"I'm already starting to like this." Alice said, grinning at Dominique and Lily, who smiled back in return. 


	16. Chapter 16: Locked Away

Chapter 16: Locked Away  
  
Kierra ran down the hall. 'I could be running a lot faster if it weren't for this stupid skirt' she thought angrily to herself as she burst into Professor Flitwick's charms class five minutes late.  
  
"Ah, there you are Miss Nakofsky! You're late again! One more and I'll have to give you detention, I'm afraid!" Professor Flitwick said sternly.  
  
"Sorry, sir…" Kierra breathed as she glanced around for an empty seat.   
  
"Just take the seat by Mr. Lupin" Professor Flitwick said, pointing to the only empty seat in the room and turning his attention back to the class, "Now, as I was saying, this charm is a bit difficult because…" Professor Flitwick continued with his lessons as Kierra sat down next to Remus, determined not to look at him. Remus however, smiled weakly at Kierra and spoke quietly to her.   
  
"Hi Kierra…"   
  
"Hi asshole"  
  
"erm…right…" Remus turned back to his notes. He had completely lost Professor Flitwick. No matter, he had already mastered the inflamarous charm last week and could risk not paying attention for a few minutes. He pulled out a scrap piece of parchment, and scribbled a note to Kierra. He folded it over twice and placed it on her desk, glancing at her, though she pretended not to see.  
  
"Alright everyone, let's have another go at it! Remember, we're aiming for small bursts of flames, not too large! Got that Mr. Potter?" Professor Flitwick said.  
  
"Yes sir!" James replied eagerly as he pointed his wand at the small stone on his desk.  
  
Kierra pulled out her own wand and tapped Remus's note lightly, muttered an incantation and instantly it burst into flames.   
  
"Well done Miss Nakofsky!" Professor Flitwick exclaimed, "only I think you did the charm on one of your sheets of parchments, not on the stone I gave you! Try it again on that!"  
  
"Sure thing professor sir!" Kierra replied, tapping her wand on the stone this time, sending that into an explosion of flames as well.   
  
Remus stared at Kierra, then at his note, which was now a pile of ashes on Kierra's desk, then he looked back at Kierra again. He sighed hopelessly as he turned back to his work.  
  
After class, Remus hastily packed his things in his bag and dashed out the door to catch up with Kierra. Just as he rounded the corner, he saw her walking alone. "Kierra!" he called out, quickening his pace. But she ignored him. Finally he had caught up with her and they were walking side by side. "Kierra…" he said again, but she walked on as if there was no one there. Annoyed, Remus stopped in his tracks and grabbed Kierra by the arm, halting her as well.   
  
"How many times do I have to tell you I'm sorry??" Remus asked, looking at her steadily.   
  
"You've said it enough." Kierra replied coldly.  
  
"Well, it doesn't seem to be helping the situation…" Remus said in a slightly annoyed tone. "What do you want me to say to make things right? What do you want me to do?"  
  
Kierra writhed free from Remus's slacken grip and turned away from him. "Bug off…that might get rid of my headache" she replied as she stormed off.   
  
A group of boys, led by Sirius and Remus came crashing through the portrait hole at 11 pm.   
  
"Got all we could carry!" Sirius shouted, "Those house elves in the kitchen are nice! They gave us a lot of food!"  
  
"Dude keep your voices down!" Lily hissed, pulling out her wand. "Let me put some sound proof charms on the walls first!"  
  
"James and Peter aren't back yet?" Remus asked, pulling out his own wand, and soundproofing and locking the doors that led to the dormitories so the uninvited students couldn't hear or crash the party.   
  
"Nope," Dominique said, "They're still in Hogsmead…I wonder if they were able to get the firewhiskey…if we end up celebrating end of midterms with a bunch of butterbeers, I'm jumping out the window…"  
  
"Never fear my dear, James Potter is here!!" shouted James, coming from the portrait hole with Peter and Kierra, "and we've got more than just firewhiskeys and butterbeers, we've got it all!"  
  
"Excellent!" Dominique said.  
  
"Paaarty!!" Sirius yelled, as he grabbed a drink and ran to the magical stereo and hit the music on. Instantly, the room was filled with loud disco music (a/n: remember what time period we're in! lol)  
  
Lily waved her wand and bright, colorful lights lit the room up, and with another wave of her wand, a disco ball appeared at the ceiling.   
  
"Brilliant!" Dominique said happily as she grabbed a firewhiskey and ran right into Sirius.  
  
"Wanna dance?" Sirius asked.  
  
"sure"—  
  
"Ahem…." It was Lily, standing with Alice. "We need to do something with Kierra! I thought you had a plan, Black!"  
  
"Oh right…ok, come on…" Sirius said, leading the girls to the portrait hole. They stepped outside, where Peter stood as the doorman.   
  
"Listen Peter," Sirius said in a whisper, "you know Remus's girlfriend Megan? Don't let her in ok? She shouldn't be coming anyway…none of us invited her…"  
  
"Oh shit…" Peter said, stomping his foot.  
  
"What?" Dominique asked.  
  
"Er…I already invited her…yesterday…"  
  
"What?? Why?"  
  
"Well, Remus was going to tell her about the party anyway…but he told me to invite her if I saw her…so I did…sorry!"  
  
"Oh great!" Sirius said, "well, maybe we can keep her from getting in…"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. "Black, how thick ARE you? She's in our house! She doesn't have to come through the portrait hole!"  
  
Sirius looked at her blankly. "oh, right…she IS in our house, isn't she? I totally forgot…"  
  
"wow…" Lily muttered as they went back inside the common room.   
  
"So we'll just try to keep them away from each other during the night…and…try to include him and Kierra in the same conversations so they can be around each other…" Sirius said.  
  
"Well…we might have some difficulty keeping him and Megan apart…" Dominique said, pointing to the middle of the common room, which was now a dance floor. The couple seemed to be quite engrossed by the music and by each other.  
  
"Ooh boy…this is gonna be a long night…trying to make them get along…" Alice said, pointing at Kierra, who stood at the drinks table with James, glaring at Remus and Megan.   
  
"Listen guys, this party is to celebrate end of those wretched exams! We're supposed to enjoy ourselves!" said Sirius, "If the opportunity arises to get them together, go for it…but let's not stress ourselves over it! Ok?"  
  
Lily sighed. "Yea, you're right…ok…let's enjoy ourselves…let's have some fun!"  
  
"You sure you know how to do that Evans?" came a voice from behind them. It was James, holding bottles of firewhiskey for all of them. "Want one Lily? Or would you prefer a butterbeer?" he asked with a grin.  
  
The others turned to Lily, who smiled back and grabbed a bottle of firewhiskey from James. "This'll do fine." She said, popping the bottle open.   
  
James watched in awe as Lily chugged down half the bottle in a few seconds.   
  
"wow…" he stammered. "Wanna dance?"  
  
"Er…ok" Lily said, smiling shyly. 'Why am I blushing? It's only James…' Lily thought nervously as James led her to the dance floor.   
  
"Right…I'm gonna go find Frank." Alice said, nodding at Sirius and Dominique before leaving them.   
  
"Shall we?" Sirius asked, taking a sip from his drink and placing it on a nearby table.  
  
"Yes, lets." Dominique answered, pulling Sirius onto the dance floor.   
  
Kierra watched as all her friends paired off and went dancing. She was standing by herself, sipping a butterbeer. (she vowed to herself to never drink anything strong, ever again..) Her grip on her bottle tightened as she saw Remus's hand slide from Megan's back down to her butt.   
  
'That should be my ass…' she thought viciously. 'I should be there with him…and this is my favorite song too!' Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by someone's loud cough. It was Kyle.   
  
"Oh, hey Kyle!" Kierra said. "How's it going?"  
  
"Good, you?"  
  
"Ah…yea…great…"  
  
"Why aren't you dancing? I thought you liked this song"  
  
"Yea…well, no partner…"  
  
"Want to dance with me? I mean…if it's not awkward for you"—  
  
"Oh no..not at all! I'd love to!" And without further ceremony Kyle and Kierra went over to dance. Soon, Kierra forgot about her anger with Remus; she was having such a good time with Kyle.   
  
"So um…are you seeing anyone right now?" Kyle asked.  
  
"No….are you?"  
  
"no…"  
  
"oh…"   
  
"But that guy…you liked…what happened to him?"  
  
"Oh…well…I guess…things took a different turn…for both of us…so…I don't think it's going to happen…" Kierra replied, glancing shortly at Remus and Megan, who had stalked off to get drinks.   
  
"Oh..sorry.."  
  
"No, it's alright."  
  
"Er…hey…." Someone said from behind them.  
  
"Sirius! Um…what do you want?" Kierra asked, slightly put off.  
  
"Er, can I steal Kierra away from you Kyle? I wanted to talk to her about something…really important…"  
  
"Er..yea, ok.." Kyle said. "I'm just gonna get something to eat" he said, smiling at Kierra.  
  
"Ok, cool" Kierra replied, as she turned back to Sirius. "Ok, what's up?" she asked.  
  
"Why on earth are you dancing with him?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Well, I like this song…I like to dance…and he asked me…"  
  
"So what?"  
  
"What the hell is your problem?" Kierra asked.  
  
"I don't have a problem…I just don't think it's a good idea to dance with your ex! I mean…scenes might rise unpleasant…"  
  
"What are you talking about, Black? We're perfectly o.k…"  
  
"That's what you think…" Sirius said as he turned to leave.  
  
"What??" Kierra followed after him.  
  
"Never mind…Oy, there you are Dominique! Later Kiki!" Sirius said, going up to Dominique.   
  
"What a weirdo…" Kierra thought as she turned around to find Kyle.   
  
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked as he watched Dominique shake a bottle of butterbeer.   
  
"oh…nothing…just spiking Lily's drink…giving her butterbeer a little kick…"  
  
Sirius laughed. "Why would you do that?"  
  
"So she can loosen up! Look at her!" Dominique said, pointing to Lily, who was dancing rather stiffly with James, who also looked slightly nervous.  
  
"Ah…I see…aren't you a good friend.."  
  
"Yes, I am, thank you!"   
  
Kierra finally found Kyle, but he was chatting with Alice and Frank, so she decided to let them alone. 'Probably talking about quidditch or something else dull…' she thought as she glanced around the room. Suddenly her eyes stopped at the couch that rested a few meters away from her. There on the couch, Remus was making out with Megan. She sighed in disgust as she watched Megan pull Remus down on her and they disappeared from her view. 'stupid slut' she thought angrily, but quickly turned her attention to some shouting she just heard. It was Peter. He was standing on top of a table, emptying a bottle of firewhiskey.   
  
"Look at meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I can flyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!" he shouted as he jumped off the table, spreading his arms out like a bird would spread its wings. The crowd of students that had gathered around him quickly backed away as he jumped, allowing him to crash hard on the floor.  
  
"oooh…" Peter groaned in pain. Kierra looked around. Everyone had gone back to their dancing, talking or eating. No one seemed to care. She looked back at Peter, who lay unconscious, and went over to him and checked to see if he was ok. 'Out cold…way too much to drink…' she thought as she tried pulling him up. 'oh duh…' she thought, pulling her wand out, 'I'm a witch!! Oh gosh…I AM ditzy…' she thought sadly.   
  
"Wingardium leviosa" she muttered and Peter's body hovered a few feet off the ground. Suddenly, a wonderful idea popped into Kierra's head. Praying that no one was looking, Kierra carefully directed Peter's body towards the couch that Remus and Megan were occupying. They clearly seemed too busy to take notice that there was a large body floating right over them.   
  
Kierra smiled at the idea of what she about to do. As Peter hovered directly over the snogging couple, Kierra let down her wand and quickly backed away several feet into the crowd of people to blend in so no one could blame her.  
  
"ARGH!!!"   
  
Peter landed on top of Remus and Megan with a heavy thud. "Peter!!! What the hell is your problem?!" Remus said, pushing Peter away from him. As Peter slumped over against the couch Remus realized that he was not conscious.   
  
"Er…what…what happened?" Megan asked. "Where did he come from?"  
  
"No idea…" Remus answered as he glanced around the room for some sign of a person with a wand out.   
  
"Oh my…."   
  
Remus looked to where Megan had pointed. There on the same table from which Peter had jumped from, was Dominique and Lily.   
  
"Oh good gosh…" Remus breathed. The two girls were grinding their bodies against each other in beat with the music. He suddenly turned his attention to a loud crashing noise coming from the other end of the room, where Sirius and James were wrestling. Sirius had just charged at James, sending them both crashing into a group of abandoned chairs. But they too turned their attention to the make-shift stage and quickly ran to join the other students.  
  
"Wooo take it off!" Sirius heard some boy shouting at Dominique.   
  
"Who were you saying that to?" Sirius growled.  
  
"Er, Dominique! Why do you care"—  
  
"Well you see," Sirius said, grabbing the boy by his collar and lifting him off the ground, "she's my woman, so you better just close your eyes, got it?"  
  
"I don't have to"—  
  
"Yea, you do…your only other alternative is I rip out your eyes for you!" Sirius said, but stopped shortly when a shirt landed on his head. He peeled off the soft pink shirt and stared wide eyed at the scene. Lily had just followed Dominique's suite and ripped her top off as well, tossing it at the cheering crowd.   
  
"Oh wow…" James said in bewilderment. "Oh no!!!"   
  
Lily and Dominique had both thrown themselves into the crowd.  
  
"Ok ladies, right this way!!!" James could hear Sirius shouting over all the students. James finally found him and saw that he was struggling to pull Dominique and Lily out of the crowd. Quickly, James made his way to them and wrapped an arm around Lily and pulled her away from everyone.   
  
"Just what in hell's name do you think you two were doing??" Sirius scolded them as he searched the floor for Lily's shirt which he found within seconds.   
  
"Dancing, silly!" Lily replied with a giggle.  
  
"Are you guys crazy??" came a voice from behind them. It was Kierra. "What the hell was that all about?? I mean, I know we like to play around when we're in our dorms, but REALLY…in front of everyone…" Kierra stopped shortly when she realized that two more people had joined their conversation.  
  
"You guys do that in your dorm rooms?" Megan asked with an amused look.  
  
"Never mind," Kierra said, blushing when she saw Remus laughing. She turned back to the girls, who were being helped back into their shirts by James and Sirius. "You two were out of line! Dancing on tables and whatnot…you're not strippers!!!" She turned back angrily at Remus and Megan, who had started to laugh.  
  
"Sorry…I thought it was kind of funny…" Megan giggled.   
  
Kierra sighed. "Yea, well when you're already a slut…doesn't matter, does it?" she said under her breath as she walked away.   
  
"Er…what'd she say?" Megan asked Remus.  
  
"No idea…" Remus replied, though he heard every little word that came out of Kierra's mouth.   
  
Dominique smiled as she saw Megan excuse herself from Remus to go sit with her friends.   
  
"Hey Remus!" Dominique said as she walked up to him. "Dance with me, would you?"  
  
"Sure" he replied as Dominique took his hand.   
  
"So, having fun?" she asked.   
  
"Yea…great time. Yourself?"   
  
"Yes, absolutely…" Dominique said, closing her eyes and smiling as if she were in a utopia.  
  
"Er…you're quite drunk aren't you?" Remus asked.  
  
"yea I think so…why?"   
  
"Er no reason, just curious."  
  
Dominique glanced around the room and smiled when she found what she was looking for.   
  
"Hey, let's get some drinks!" Dominique said suddenly, pulling Remus over to the drinks table.  
  
"Um….you sure you need any more?" Remus asked uncertainly.   
  
"I meant water!"  
  
"Oh…of course…" Remus said, making a grab for the pitcher of water, but instead grabbed someone's hand.  
  
"Oh! Sorry!" Remus said, quickly withdrawing his hand. "Didn't notice you were there" 'damnit why'd I say that??' Remus thought angrily.   
  
"It's alright." Kierra replied callously. Remus watched as Kierra poured water into her glass, and wondered which was colder, the icy water or Kierra's mood.   
  
"Having fun?" Dominique asked, extending her glass out to Kierra.  
  
"oh yes, lots." She replied.   
  
"Really? Doesn't look like it!" Dominique said sweetly.  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
Dominique paused and squinted an eye, apparently deep in thought. "I dunno…" she finally said.  
  
"You have had way too much do drink D, I'm sorry to say." Kierra replied, stifling a laugh.   
  
Dominique frowned at her and Remus, sighing loudly as she stomped her foot on the ground. "Ugh!!"  
  
"Er…sorry?" Kierra asked, backing away.  
  
"You two!! You're so annoying!! Just get together and get over it would you??" Dominique exclaimed.  
  
"What??" Remus asked.  
  
Dominique sighed exasperatedly. "Look, I'm trying to think of some clever way to put you two together…and it's too hard because you are being so bloody difficult, and I'm too bloody pissed to think!" With another frustrated grumble, Dominique pulled out her wand and pointed it at Remus and Kierra.  
  
"What are doing??" Kierra asked, taking a step backwards.  
  
"alohamora!"  
  
"Huh??" Remus and Kierra said together. The door behind them swung open, revealing the broom closet. They both looked back questioningly at Dominique, only for a moment before she shoved them both into the tiny closet.  
  
"Work out your differences in there!!" Dominique said as she slammed the door shut and put a locking charm on it and set a chair underneath the doorknob, in case they tried using any magic.   
  
'I am a lot cleverer than I give myself credit for!' Dominique thought cockily as she tucked her wand away and headed back to find Sirius. 


	17. Chapter 17: Clean Slate

Chapter 17: Clean Slate   
  
Dominique made her way to Sirius, who stood leaning against the wall by the stairs, looking quite bored.   
  
"Hello dah-ling!!" Dominique hailed, as she joined him.   
  
"Hello dear…where've you been?" Sirius asked nonchalantly, taking a sip of his tequila.  
  
"Oh, nowhere…" Dominique replied with a hiccup. "Boy, I'm feeling a wee bit tipsy!"   
  
Sirius glanced at Dominique with a raised eyebrow. "Just a wee bit?" he asked. At that moment, Megan joined Sirius and Dominique, clutching two martini glasses.   
  
"Hey have you guys seen Remus?" she asked. "I've been looking all over for him!"  
  
"Er, yea…" replied Dominique, "he's kind of busy though…"  
  
Megan narrowed her eyes at Dominique and asked, "Doing what?"  
  
"Oh…it's really a question of whom…" Dominique replied, pulling Sirius's drink out of his hands and taking a sip from it.  
  
"What??" Megan and Sirius asked together.  
  
"Yes," Dominique continued innocently, "he's just making passionate love to his girlfriend right now…"  
  
Megan's eyes widened with disbelief. "I'm his girlfriend!!"  
  
Dominique snickered. "Well, not anymore! Anyway, how thick are you? He's liked Kierra for ages, wasn't it obvious?"  
  
"Oh my gosh…he…they…" Megan stammered.  
  
"Oh get over it! You two have nothing in common anyway! You just dated him because he's in the popular crowd and because he's a seventh year…" Dominique drawled.  
  
"That's not true!" Megan protested angrily. "I don't know what you're talking about!" she said as she turned to leave, running right into Kyle as she did so. "Oh…sorry.." she said quickly as she blushed.   
  
"Er, Dominique, what exactly just happened?" asked Sirius. "Was there any truth to what you just said?"  
  
"Well…" Dominique began, "I sort of locked them in that broom closet over there…they were annoying me…if they stay in there long enough, I'm sure they'll come to some mutual amity…" she said as she drained the last of Sirius's tequila.   
  
"Wow…" Sirius said, looking bemused. "You're quite the oddity, you know that, right?"  
  
"Sure…" Dominique answered, helping herself to another drink.   
  
Sirius watched her with amusement. "D, how many of those have you had?"  
  
"No idea, you?"   
  
"Mmm…you're a bit drunk aren't you?"   
  
"Just a little…" she slurred, "why, did you want to take advantage of me or something?" she added with a sly grin.  
  
"I was thinking about it, but then I figured you'd kill me when you sobered up."  
  
"Mmm…yea…" Dominique said, swaying into Sirius's arms to kiss him. She began to undo the buttons of his shirt as she did so. Sirius's eyes snapped open in surprise, but he quickly regained his composure and decided to respond in the same manner, when an annoying voice in his head warned him against it.   
  
"Er…look, Dominique," he said, pulling away from her. "you're kind of…really drunk…right now, I mean, I don't mind doing this…but I thought you might…so maybe we shouldn't…I don't want you hating me tomorrow morning for this.."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Er…really what..?"  
  
"You…care…about me?"  
  
Sirius looked at her as if she had asked him what color blue was. "Of course I do! I thought that was obvious!"  
  
"Well then, we can't continue out here in the public…let's go upstairs." Dominique said, taking Sirius's hand and pulled him towards the stairs that led to the boys' dormitory.  
  
"What? Are you serious?"  
  
"No, you're Sirius, silly!"   
  
"No…I mean, are you sure?"  
  
"Don't you want to?"  
  
"I'm a guy, I'll always want to..but do you? I mean, are you sure?"  
  
"Yes! Come on! We're losing precious snogging time here!"  
  
"Well, alright, if you insist!" Sirius said, sweeping up Dominique in his arms and carrying her up the stairs.  
  
"Lumos" Remus muttered. Instantly the small dingy closet lit up. He glanced at Kierra, who was struggling to pull herself out of a bucket she had landed in. Remus couldn't help but break into a smile.  
  
"Stuck?"  
  
Kierra rolled her eyes. "Yes, genius, I'm stuck" she said sarcastically as she strained to get out. It was no use. Her butt seemed to be permanently lodged in the bucket. "How about some help?" she asked, looking at the ground. 'Gosh,' she thought, 'this is so embarrassing…'  
  
Remus's smile broadened. "Sure…erm…here…stand up and I'll pull it off…" he said, trying to stifle a laugh.   
  
"Yes, well seeing how my ass is stuck in it…I think standing up might prove to be a bit difficult…" she said testily, "quit laughing, it's not funny!!" she shouted, but she immediately fell into laughter as well. It was pretty funny actually, she had to admit.  
  
"Come on, get me out of this!" She said through her laughter.   
  
"Right…sorry…" he said, still laughing. Remus knelt down beside Kierra and studied the bucket. "Er, ok…here, let's turn you over…" Remus said, gently pivoting Kierra and her bucket so she now faced the ground. "Ok…let's try to pull this off…" he said with another laugh.   
  
"Come on, hurry up! Before someone comes in!"   
  
"That would be fun"—  
  
"Get a move on before I shove this broom up your ass" Kierra said nastily, pointing at a grubby broom that lay on the floor by her.   
  
Remus stopped laughing, though he still smiled. "Right, sorry Ma'am…" Grasping the bottom of the bucket, Remus gave a heavy tug, but the bucket wouldn't come off. "It's pretty…stuck there.." Remus said, giving it another pull.  
  
"Maybe if you stop laughing for like two seconds, you can put in more of an effort!" Kierra growled.   
  
"Well, it's hard not to! Hey if you were in my place, you'd be laughing your ass off too! Oh wait…I guess you wouldn't, seeing how it's stuck in a bucket…oww!!" Remus exclaimed. Kierra had given him a hard punch in the leg. Remus laughed as he rubbed his leg.  
  
"Ok..let's try this again…" he said, as he grasped the rear of the bucket again. He pulled with all his might, yet to no avail.   
  
"Wait…just magic it off!" Kierra exclaimed.  
  
"Oh…right…ok…er…where's your wand?"  
  
"Mine fell somewhere…use yours!"  
  
"I'm using mine to keep this closet lighted…I can't do two spells at once with it…"  
  
"Right…"  
  
"Maybe we can grease your"—  
  
"Don't even finish that sentence!" Kierra warned.  
  
"Right..sorry…"  
  
"Ugh, can't you try again?" Kierra whined.  
  
"It's stuck! Either your rear is too big or that bucket is too small…" Remus stopped when Kierra gave him an angry glare. "I mean…it's the latter of course…your…yours isn't big…not at all…" Remus stammered.  
  
"uh huh…"  
  
"No really! It's not!" Remus exclaimed apologetically.   
  
"Right…"  
  
"Seriously! It's actually kind of small! Er…no not too small!" he said quickly as Kierra shot another look at him. "Yea…it's really the perfect size…it's really cute"—Remus stopped himself. 'Cute? Cute?? Did I just say that out loud??' he thought to himself. He looked down at Kierra, who seemed to be thinking the same thing as him, only instead of being embarrassed, she looked rather amused.   
  
"Er…thanks…I guess?" she said, blushing.   
  
"Uh….let's try again…" Remus said awkwardly, taking a hold of the bucket yet again. Suddenly an idea came to him. "Kierra…hold onto that bar over there..just keep a good grasp on it..and I'll pull on this bucket..that might work.."  
  
"Erm..ok…" Kierra said, doing as she was told.  
  
Remus pulled hard again on the bucket; this time it came off, (making a popping noise as it went, lol) and the force sent Remus, along with the bucket, flying backwards, slamming right into the door.   
  
"There! Nothing to it!" Remus breathed as got up.   
  
"Yea…" Kierra muttered, rubbing her butt. "That didn't feel too nice…" she said, smiling at Remus, who smirked at her.   
  
"Ok let's get out of here…" Remus said, tugging on the door knob. "Oh great, it's locked.."  
  
"Ah, found my wand!" Kierra said, "Here…alohamora!" she said, and there was a sudden clicking noise. As Remus tried turning the knob, it jammed up and would not open. He tugged at the knob and pushed at the door.  
  
"Something's jammed up behind it." He said.  
  
"Oh great…" Kierra said, leaning against the wall, "now what do we do?"  
  
"Well…" Remus said, turning to face Kierra, "we could just do what Dominique intended us to do when she locked us in here."  
  
Kierra looked at Remus, slightly startled. "Oh! Er…."  
  
"listen," Remus interrupted, "I know I've been a pain in the ass, no pun intended," he added with a smile, "and you've got plenty of reason to not like me now…what with the things I've said, and how I've acted…but…I still really, really like you…if you could just give me a chance…let's just start over…with a clean slate…can we do that?" he asked, looking at her almost pleadingly.   
  
Kierra stared at him for a moment before breaking into a smile. "Yes, I would love if we could do that."   
  
Remus's face lit up and he smiled back at her. "Really?"  
  
Kierra giggled. "Really…."  
  
"So…" he said after a moment's silence, "where do you want to start from, if we're starting with a fresh slate?"  
  
Kierra smiled. "Wherever you want."  
  
Remus paused in thought, then smiled and drew closer to her. "Remember when we first kissed, outside, during that storm?"  
  
"yea…"  
  
"Let's pick up from there…"   
  
"Sounds good to me…"  
  
"Ugh, this place is so disgusting…" Dominique exclaimed as Sirius dropped her on his bed. "Don't you guys ever clean up around here?"  
  
Sirius grinned and reached into his nightstand and pulled out a small flask. "None of us are really good with those household spells…"  
  
"So do it without magic! It doesn't take that long…what's that?" Dominique asked, pointing at the flask that Sirius was now opening up.   
  
"That's woman's work…and this," he said, putting the flask to Dominique's mouth, "is a little antidote that James and I brewed, it's a sober-upper!"   
  
Dominique took a sip of it and nearly choked. "It tastes dreadful!"   
  
"Yes, well, that's the way the cookie crumbles. It works wonders though. Drink some more."  
  
As Dominique took another sip, the room seemed to come into clearer view. "Wow…it does…" she said as she looked around. "wow, disgusting is un understatement for this room…."  
  
Sirius chuckled and took the flask away from Dominique, replacing it in his nightstand. "Yea well, you can clean it up for us when I'm done with you…" he said as he plopped onto his bed.   
  
Dominique smiled slyly. "And what do you plan on doing?"  
  
"Exactly what you've been longing for…" he answered as he pulled himself on top of Dominique and kissed her.   
  
"Ahem…"   
  
Sirius pulled away from Dominique immediately and hopped of his bed. "Prongs!"  
  
"Padfoot!" James answered in equal enthusiasm. "I just came up here to retire for the night, don't mind me!" he said as he went to his bed and tucked himself in, glancing at Dominique and smiling mischievously at her.  
  
"You're still wearing your clothes, you know that mate?" Sirius asked, as he helped Dominique out of his bed.  
  
"Yea, I wear clothes to bed, unlike some people…" he said, widening his eyes at Sirius.  
  
Dominique giggled and stared incredulously at Sirius. "You sleep naked??"   
  
Sirius ignored her. "I meant you're still dressed up…not to mention you're still wearing your shoes." Sirius said, pointing at the tennis shoe clad feet that peeked out from underneath James's blankets.   
  
"Yes," James said, getting out of his bed and heading to the bathroom. "He sleeps stark naked. Kinda gross isn't it?" he said to Dominique.   
  
Dominique sniggered. "What're you giggling about?" Sirius asked her, wrapping his arms around her waist, "Have you got a problem with that?"  
  
"No, not at all!" Dominique replied, trying to stifle another laugh. "Well, I should head back to bed…my own bed, that is…" she said as she pulled away from Sirius and headed towards the door.   
  
"Wait!" Sirius called suddenly, "Remus and Kierra! Are they still downstairs?"  
  
Dominique's face lit up. "Oooh!! I forgot about that! Let's go check on them!!" she said excitedly as she opened the door.  
  
"Check on who?" James asked as he came out of the bathroom, buttoning up his nightshirt.   
  
"Kierra and Remus!" Dominique replied. "Come on!"   
  
"Er, what happened to them?" James asked, as he followed Sirius and Dominique down the stairs.   
  
Sirius quickly explained what Dominique did to Kierra and Remus.  
  
"Aw, poor Moony! Having to be stuck with that little brat in that tiny closet!" James laughed. "Well, either they're at each other's throats right now, or they've got their tongues down each other's throats…"  
  
"It's the latter!!" Dominique squealed as she opened the door. But just then, Kierra and Remus parted from each other and quickly looked away from their laughing friends, blushing furiously.   
  
"So…you two are together now?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Uhh…"   
  
"Er…"   
  
Kierra and Remus exchanged shy glances at each other and both nodded at once.   
  
"Well, it's about time!" Dominique announced. "And to think, it was all because of my meddling," she said, smiling broadly at the new couple. "And you're very welcome!"   
  
"Yes, thank goodness for firewhiskey…" Remus said, causing everyone to laugh.  
  
"I don't get it!" Dominique said.   
  
"Nevermind, darling" Sirius said, "well, let's all get to sleep, it's really late…"  
  
"Congratulations, mate!" James said excitedly, patting Remus on the back, "She's liked you for ages, you know…I knew all along…"  
  
"You really take pride in knowing that little fact, don't you Prongs?" Sirius said. "Oy…Moony, I guess you won't have to worry about breaking up with Megan!" he said, pointing to a couple that occupied one of the couches.  
  
There was Megan, sharing a kiss with none other than Kyle Watson.   
  
"Oh!" Remus said at once. "Well...how about that…my ex, and Kierra's ex…"  
  
Kierra watched them with amusement. "Funny…I don't even care…"  
  
"Neither do I…" Remus said.  
  
"Aw, aren't you two cute??" James squealed, jumping in between Kierra and Remus, wrapping his arms around them and crumbling up their hair.   
  
"Agh!!" Kierra exclaimed, slapping James away. "Oh, look!" Kierra said, pointing over at a disheveled figure that lay slumped against the wall. Peter had finally opened his eyes and seemed to be coming to his senses.  
  
"Wormtail! Get up!!" Sirius said, "geez, you missed like the whole party! We're going to bed now!"  
  
"What'd I miss?" he asked wearily as he pulled himself up.   
  
"A lot…" replied James.  
  
"Like what?" Peter asked, glancing at Kierra and Remus, noticing that they were holding hands. "Are you two..?"  
  
"Yea" Remus answered.  
  
"When? How?"  
  
"In the morning…we'll talk in the morning…" Remus replied. "I am dead tired."  
  
"Me too" Sirius said, as he and the other marauders headed up to the boys' dormitory, leaving Kierra and Dominique to themselves.  
  
"So???" Dominique looked excitedly at Kierra; her eyes were practically dancing in their sockets. "How'd it happen?"   
  
Kierra grinned but shook her head with a sigh. "I'll tell you all in the morning…"  
  
"aw, come on!" Dominique protested as she followed Kierra up the stairs.  
  
"tomorrow….so I can just tell you, Lily and Alice at once."  
  
"Fine…" Dominique grumbled as they tiptoed into the girls' dormitory. 


	18. Chapter 18: Housewide Hangover

Chapter 18: House-wide Hangover  
  
"Morning mates!!" James said perkily as he joined his friends in the great hall for breakfast.   
  
"Morning…" Sirius grumbled.   
  
"Oy, what are you so grumpy about, Mr. cranky pants?" James asked.  
  
"What are you so perky about?" Sirius retorted.  
  
James sighed. "Well," he began, as he began to butter his toast, "I got to snog Lily last night…I finally made it with her…slept so soundly last night…that's plenty to be perky about! So what's eating you, Padfoot?"  
  
"Hmm…about the opposite, I'd say…"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, things were moving along pretty smoothly last night between Dominique and myself…actually, last night was probably supposed to be the night.."—  
  
"You mean you guys haven't even shagged"—  
  
"We were gonna!!" Sirius said testily, "we were definitely heading that way, til you decided to come in…"  
  
"Prongs…you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Remus said, smiling. "Ruining Sirius's chance of a lifetime!"  
  
"Hey! Not MY chance of a lifetime…really, it would have been Dominique's if anything…but all the same, yes, he ruined it…" Sirius answered.   
  
James chuckled. "Well, serves you right, mate. You shouldn't be attempting to get laid in our dormitory anyway…that's just not right…don't you think, Moony? Wormtail?"  
  
"Here, here!" Remus and Peter said together.   
  
James smirked at Sirius, who in return rolled his eyes in irritation as he went back to his breakfast.  
  
"Boy, you don't look well, Moony…full moon's tonight, isn't it?" James asked, looking up at Remus's now pale complexion.  
  
Remus nodded. "Yea, it's tonight…which means I should be heading to the hospital wing soon…"   
  
"Hey, you guys wanna go through the forest again tonight? We got pretty close to the other end of it last time." James said.  
  
"Oh God, no…" Peter said, "all those spiders…"  
  
Remus rolled his eyes. "Really Wormtail, how many times do we have to tell you, they don't prey after rats!"  
  
"I know…but still!! They've got all those freaking legs…" Peter whined, shuttering at the thought.  
  
"Oh geez, you'll be fine!" Sirius said, "if you want, you can just ride on my back, or James's, if you're really that freaked out…"  
  
"Hey look Moony! There's your giiirlfriend!!" James gushed, putting an annoying emphasis on the word girlfriend.   
  
Remus looked towards the entrance and saw Kierra walking in with her friends, and his stomach seemed to do a back flip. She was his girlfriend now, he thought, grinning. What a nice thought. He smiled at her and waved, motioning her to join him and his friends.   
  
"Aww…look at him! He's so happy to see you!" Dominique cooed. "he's so cute!"  
  
Kierra blushed. This all seemed so surreal. She woke up this morning, asking Dominique if she had really been locked up in a closet with Remus Lupin, and if in fact they had really gotten together, just to make sure it was all real.   
  
"I still can't believe you locked them in a closet together" Alice said to Dominique with a laugh.   
  
"I still can't believe she spiked my drink!" Lily grumbled.   
  
The others giggled. "Lighten up," Dominique replied, "you had fun last night, just admit it."  
  
"I made a fool of myself! And I'm head girl! People are going to be talking…"  
  
"No one's going to talk!"  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
"Well, when I invited everyone, I gave them R.S.V.P cards, and I jinxed them, so that if they signed it and returned it to me, they automatically cannot say anything…we'll know if they do…" Dominique said with a mischievous smile.  
  
"What would happen?"  
  
"They'd grow bald…"  
  
"Wicked…" Kierra and Alice said together.   
  
"Morning ladies!" James said sweetly as the girls took seats with the boys. "Morning Lily…" he said, blushing slightly.  
  
"Morning Potter…" Lily answered without even looking up at him. Slightly crestfallen at her cold reply, but too scared to ask what her problem was, James went back to his breakfast.  
  
"Hi Remus…" Kierra said shyly as she sat down next to him. He smiled back, just as timidly, if not more.   
  
"aww!!" James began again. "Look at you two!!"   
  
"Shut it James…" Remus said.  
  
"Why is everyone so bloody cranky today?" James huffed, as he rocked back and forth moodily in his seat.   
  
"After-party affects, I'd have to say…" Sirius said. "I mean, look at half our table…"  
  
The group looked around and noticed that indeed, about half the Gryffindor table, the older students, all looked tired and fatigued, and several looked quite ill.  
  
"Oh gosh.." Lily murmured. "Think McGonagall will be suspicious?"  
  
Professor McGonagall observed the Gryffindor table from the head table as she sipped on her morning coffee. There was something dodgy about her students this morning. Everyone looked sick. No, not everyone. Just the older students…Professor McGonagall glanced down the rows of students to observe…4th years and up…very suspicious.  
  
"Good heavens…" she gasped as the puzzle seemed to piece perfectly together.  
  
"Something wrong, Minerva?" Dumbledore asked, glancing up at her from his Belgian waffles.   
  
"Insufferable!" she hissed. "Most appalling…"  
  
"What, may I ask, is so appalling to you, professor McGonagall?" Dumbledore inquired. "Certainly not these waffles? They've absolutely divine…"  
  
"underage drinking…" professor McGonagall answered, not looking away from the Gryffindor table.  
  
"I'm sorry?"  
  
"Look at lot of them!" she hissed, "sick and pallid looking!"  
  
"Now, now Minerva…there's a bug going around, you know…"  
  
"4th years and up! Not a single student under 4th year is looking sick…they must have had a party last night! It makes so much sense!"  
  
Dumbledore smiled. "Don't you think people would be able to hear if there was a party?"  
  
"Nonsense! You know as well as I do that these older students know plenty of magic"—  
  
"Now Minerva," Dumbledore said, with a hint of amusement in his voice, "I daresay, you are overreacting a bit…you have no means of proving your case…"  
  
"Vertiserum…" she suggested.  
  
"Ah, the truth potion," Dumbledore said sagely, "is illegal to use without ministry consent…professor McGonagall, I'd like to ask you," he said with a smile as he got up to leave with the other professors, "to just remember what it's like to be a blossoming youth…in the prime of your life…"  
  
"Oh, honestly, Dumbledore," Professor McGonagall began as she also got up. "You really can be"— She turned around to face him, but he was gone. 'way too soft with the students sometimes…' she thought irritably to herself.  
  
"I just don't get why she still hates me…" James said miserably, as they walked up to the common room hours later. "I thought we really hit it off last night…"  
  
"You guys were making out…" Dominique said with a smile.  
  
"If that's not hitting it off, I don't know what is…"  
  
"Did you guys even talk much?"  
  
"No, not really…we were both pretty drunk, you know…"  
  
"Exactly…that's probably why she's still not softened up to you," Dominique answered, "you two haven't connected yet!"  
  
"Er…what?"  
  
Dominique rolled her eyes. "You know…like friends! You two have never had a serious, real conversation, have you?"  
  
"No…" James muttered, "but…but she won't let me!"  
  
"Have you even tried? I mean, to talk with her…not just to ask her out…"  
  
"No…" James muttered again. "Fidelius…" The portrait door swung open and James and Dominique went through.   
  
"Well, there you have it, James…you need to be friends with her first…that way, she'll trust you…and after that I bet you could ask her out."  
  
"You think so?"  
  
"Definitely…so for now, just lay off on the dating thing…and…just be her friend…"  
  
"Right…I can do that!" James said excitedly. "Just treat her like a friend? Treat her like Sirius, or Remus, or"—  
  
"Er, no…" Dominique interrupted, "she's a girl…so you've got to be much nicer, and much more considerate…"  
  
"right…" James said with a determined face, "I can do that…"  
  
"great," Dominique said with a grin, "here's your chance…"   
  
James glanced up to see Lily coming through the portrait hole, followed by Kierra and Remus, who came arm in arm with each other, followed by Sirius and Peter.   
  
"Remus, honestly, you don't look well…are you sure you're ok??" Kierra said, "you should go to the hospital wing…have Madam Pomfrey check you out…"  
  
"It's nothing," Remus said, "but I'll go anyway…"   
  
Dominique nudged James, who immediately got out of his seat and looked nervously at Lily.   
  
"Hey Lily…erm…I…I…er…." He stuttered. Lily looked at him questioningly.   
  
"I…er…had some propositions for the next prefects meeting…can I go over them with you sometime?" he asked suddenly. 'I have propositions?' he thought to himself, 'shit, no I don't…oh shit…'  
  
"Er…ok…whenever…" Lily said.   
  
"great…" James said, sitting back down. 'bloody great,' he thought, 'now I've got to think of some bloody propositions…'  
  
"Well, I'll be off now," Remus said, a bit wearily. "Bye guys" He looked at Kierra, who looked at him with worried eyes. 'She deserves to know…' he thought. "And I'll see you, later.." he said with a weak smile as he leaned in to kiss her. Kierra smiled back, but stopped shortly when she realized everyone was watching them.  
  
"How about I just walk you to the hospital wing, and we'll say bye there…" Kierra said, taking Remus's hand and leading him out towards the portrait hole.  
  
"Aww, we wanted to watch you guys!!" James whined, bouncing up and down on the couch. "Oh well…there they go…" he said, as they disappeared out of the common room.  
  
"They are sooo cute together!" Dominique said as she leaned against Sirius's chest.   
  
"Yes, but even combined, they still aren't as cute as you alone" Sirius replied.   
  
Dominique blushed as James and Lily said "awww…." together.   
  
Sirius and Dominique grinned at the two while Lily scowled at James and headed up to the girls dormitory.   
  
"She's a cold one, isn't she?" Sirius said, as he watched Lily's retreating figure.   
  
Dominique smiled as she got up to follow her friend upstairs. "Just a bit…" she said.  
  
"Lily, anyone ever tell you what a sweet, agreeable girl you are?" Dominique asked as she came into the dormitory.  
  
Lily smiled. "Yea, all the time…"  
  
"Well, not with Potter.."  
  
"He's a git!"  
  
Dominique smirked. "Then why'd you stick your tongue down his throat last night?"  
  
"Well…had you not contaminated my drink…and had I not been so drunk…" she began.  
  
"Oh, come off it!" Dominique said, "He really likes you Lily, you should give him a chance! He's the sweetest boy…"  
  
"That's just it!" Lily said, "he's a boy!"  
  
"Er…as opposed to…a girl? Ugh Lily, don't tell me you go that way"—  
  
"No!!" Lily retorted with a slight look of revulsion, "as opposed to…a man! He's so childish, D! If he would just grow up…and act mature…"  
  
"Lily, you can find the manliest man…and he'll still have boyish tendencies…that's how the male species is…I mean look at Sirius…he's a man…but he acts like a boy too at times…"  
  
"Yes, well that's Sirius. James acts like a boy ALL the time…"  
  
Dominique sighed. "Yes, well…I suppose that's true…"  
  
"Just leave it alone…please…" Lily said.  
  
"Alright…"  
  
"By the way," Lily said, hoping to change the subject, "you never told us what happened with you and Sirius…"  
  
"Er…what happened with us?"  
  
"I mean, at the party! I saw him take you up to his room! You two didn't"—  
  
Dominique sighed. "No, we didn't…James came in…when were just kissing, so we couldn't go further than that, thank God…"  
  
"You're glad that you guys didn't?" Lily asked with surprise.  
  
"Yea…" Dominique replied with a slight look of despair, "I dunno how I feel about it…I mean, I really like him…I kinda want to do it with him…but…I'm kind of scared…oh gosh, I feel so pathetic…talking about being scared of sex…"  
  
"It's not pathetic!" Lily said, "especially after what happened…with…well, your ex…you've got every right to be hesitant about it….by the way, have you even told Sirius about that yet?"  
  
"Er…no…'  
  
"D!!"  
  
Dominique groaned. "Well, when's there ever going to be the right time to tell him?? Over a meal? In class, passing notes? Anyway I don't want him thinking I'm weak…"  
  
"You're not weak…"  
  
Dominique rolled her eyes. "If I were strong, nothing would've happened to me…"   
  
Just then, the door opened and Kierra came in, looking worried.  
  
"Kierra, what's wrong?" Dominique asked, relieved that they could change the subject.  
  
Kierra frowned at the girls as she sat on her bed. "I'm worried about Remus…"  
  
"Why? He just looks a little unwell…it'll pass…" replied Dominique.  
  
"Yes, but…I'm worried, because he gets sick all the time…I've been his stalker for over a year…and I noticed that he gets sick a lot…shoot, I'd say no less than once a month…" Kierra said.  
  
Dominique opened her mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it, and closed it.  
  
"Yea, that's true…" Lily said, who was in deep thought. "Actually, he's been like that forever…since first year…and he disappeared a lot too…"  
  
"Dominique," Kierra said, "you knew him when he was little, did he ever get"--  
  
"Guys," Dominique cut in, "maybe he's just got some condition…that…I dunno, causes him to get sick a lot…who knows…but I don't think we should dwell on it…it's his business…"  
  
"But"— Kierra protested.  
  
"Come on, if he wanted us to know, he'd tell us. Anyway, how would you find out, just asking him? That'd be kind of rude…" Dominique said, glancing at her wristwatch. "Hey, I gotta go, got quidditch practice in a few minutes. I'll see you guys later" and with that, Dominique bolted out the room.  
  
Kierra turned to Lily. "Have you got the feeling that she already knows what's wrong with Remus?"  
  
Lily nodded. "Think about it. She's known him her whole life…and she's kept in touch with him when he moved away from her…of course she'd know…but…what could be so bad about Remus that they'd keep it so secret?"  
  
"I dunno," Kierra said as she got up, "I'm gonna visit Remus though. I won't ask him anything!" she said defensively as Lily gave her an appraising look. "I just want to see him!  
  
"Alright, go see him…but no funny business! You understand?" Lily said, in a mimicking voice that sounded uncannily like Professor Keifer.   
  
"Wow, Kierra…you really spoil me…" Remus said with a weak smile as Kierra placed a bouquet of wild flowers in a vase on his nightstand. "You make me feel like a queen, honestly!"   
  
Kierra giggled as she pulled a small bundle out of her bag. "Well, your highness, that's not all…here.." she said as she placed the bundle on his lap.   
  
"Eclairs!" Remus exclaimed as he opened it up. "I love éclairs, they're my favorite! How'd you know I liked them?"  
  
Kierra grinned. "I've had a crush on you since sixth year…I know plenty about your likes and dislikes."   
  
Remus eyes widened slightly as did his smile. "Since sixth year? Are you serious?"  
  
Kierra laughed. "Yea…"  
  
"So tell me…what else do you know about me?" Remus asked, as he popped an éclair into his mouth.   
  
"Well," Kierra began, as she took a seat on his bed, "I know that you hate ice cream…which I totally don't get…but ok…"  
  
"it's just too cold! It hurts my teeth!" Remus said with a laugh.  
  
Kierra rolled her eyes. "Whatever…ok…um…oh, I know you prefer briefs to boxers! Don't ask…how I know is a professional secret!" she added with a grin as Remus looked at her questioningly. "Oh, I also know that you like to study at that one little table in the library, on the second floor…by the big window…"  
  
Remus grinned. "Yea, I do…wait…hold on…" he said, putting a finger to his lips as he thought. "Last year…on several occasions…I remember seeing a pair of brown eyes…behind the bookshelves…oh my…those were your eyes! I knew I wasn't crazy for always thinking I was being watched!! You stalked me??" he asked incredulously, looking like he was about to burst from laughter.   
  
Kierra giggled and blushed furiously. "Yea, I was your stalker…"  
  
Remus sighed. "Well, that's kind of a relief…I had the strangest suspicion it was that boy in 5th year hufflepuff…Edgar…"  
  
Kierra laughed. "You thought it was him?? Why??"  
  
"He's got the same eyes as you…and he looks kinda like the type…who'd…like other guys…" Remus said with a sheepish smile.   
  
"Oh good grief…" Kierra giggled. "he's straight…he has a girlfriend…"  
  
"Oh, ok..glad to hear it…" he said as he smiled at Kierra. His facial suddenly changed though into one that was looking critically at Kierra. "You know," he started again, "I feel kind of guilty that I hardly know anything about you…"  
  
"Oh, you'll learn more about me in good time, I'm sure…" Kierra said.  
  
Remus grinned as a fresh thought flickered through his head.   
  
"Well, one thing I want to get clarified by you…I heard this one rumor…"  
  
"About me?"  
  
"Yea…do you really do dance in your dormitory with your friends?" he asked with a grin.  
  
Kierra blushed. "Oh gosh…you heard me saying that at the party last night, didn't you?"  
  
Remus nodded. "So, I mean, do you all just get up on your beds and do it…the same way Lily and Dominique were doing it? Or do you do some other sorts of exotic dancing…?"  
  
Kierra smiled embarrassedly. "That's for me to know…"  
  
"And for me to find out?"  
  
"We'll see…" she said with a grin. "Oy, Dominique! You're here! How was practice?" Kierra asked as Dominique walked into the hospital wing.   
  
"It was good," replied Dominique. "How are you doing Remus?"  
  
"Just fine…"  
  
"Hey, I've got to get going," Kierra said, picking up her bag, "I promised Alice that I'd study with her today. I'll see you." She said, leaning in to kiss Remus.   
  
"Well, bye guys!" she said as she went out the door.  
  
Remus sighed as he watched Kierra leave, but quickly snapped out of his trance when he saw that Dominique was smirking at him.  
  
"What??" he asked.  
  
"You're in looove…" Dominique squealed.   
  
Remus's mouth dropped open slightly in surprise. "I am not in love…I just…really like her…"  
  
Dominique grinned. "Right, whatever…listen, I actually needed to talk to you about her."  
  
Remus sat up quickly in his bed. "Why? What happened? Is she ok?"  
  
"Yea, she's fine…it's just that she's worried about you…she's noticed that you always get sick…about every month…"  
  
"Are you serious?"  
  
Dominique nodded. "Remus, you ought to tell her."  
  
Remus looked at Dominique as if she were insane. "Are you kidding me? No way!"  
  
"You can't hide it from her forever!"  
  
"I know…I know…but I can't tell her now…I just started going out with her…I'm not about to scare her away…"  
  
"You won't scare her away, Remus!" Dominique protested. "She'll be understanding, I know she will!"  
  
Remus shook his head. "No…not now…maybe I'll tell her later"—  
  
"The longer you wait, the worse it'll be"—  
  
"Miss Fiore, I'm going to have to ask you to leave now!" came the voice of Madam Pomfrey. "Mr. Lupin really needs to rest…he's…unwell"—  
  
"She knows about my condition Madam Pomfrey…" Remus interrupted.  
  
"Oh! Well then…I'm sure you'll understand then…he's got a long night ahead of him. He needs his rest!" Madam Pomfrey said to Dominique.   
  
"Right…bye then Remus" Dominique said as she turned to leave.   
  
Later that evening, Remus walked to the shrieking shack with Madam Pomfrey's help.   
  
"Alright dear," she said as she helped him onto the bed in the dingy shack. "Nothing left to do but wait. I'm going to head back to the castle now. Will you be alright?"  
  
"Yes, thanks Madam Pomfrey." Remus answered weakly. With that, Madam Pomfrey quickly left the shrieking shack, before the full moon would come out.  
  
As soon as she left, Remus began to pull his robes off, not wanting them to rip them during his transformation.  
  
As he folded up his clothes and hid them under the bed, where he couldn't reach them as a werewolf, he thought about his conversation with Dominique. He had to tell Kierra sooner or later. But how would she react? Would she still like him, or would she be repulsed by him; a half breed….Sure, his friends had been more than understanding…but they were guys…Kierra was a girl….she would react completely different…she would think him a monster… 'Well, I am a monster…once a month…' he thought miserably.   
  
Soon, however, his thoughts of Kierra were forgotten as the moon showed its face through the clouds, and his body began to fill with painful convulsions.   
  
"Gregory!" Kierra hissed, as she ran down the steps, chasing after Alice's pet toad. 'Oh gosh…she's gonna kill me if I lose her toad again…' Kierra thought as she chased it down the empty halls. Just then, the clock struck. 'Shit..' Kierra thought. "9 o'clock…I shouldn't be out here…Come on Gregory…' Kierra held her breath and lunged for the toad, catching it by the legs. "Gotcha…" she whispered.  
  
Just then, she heard footsteps. 'Shit…Filch…' Kierra thought anxiously as she looked around frantically for a place to hide.  
  
Left with no other choice, Kierra quickly hid behind a suit of armor that stood against the wall. The footsteps came closer, but she saw no one…but she could hear whispering.  
  
"You stepped on my foot!" someone hissed.  
  
"Sorry Padfoot…" someone whispered back.  
  
'Padfoot….Padfoot…where have I heard that?' Kierra thought. Suddenly it clicked. The marauder's map…So it must have been…but how could they be there…and…not there…?  
  
"Ok, I think we're getting tangled…' a third voice whispered. 'let's readjust the cloak, no one's here…' and suddenly as if by magic, Sirius, Peter and James materialized in front of her. 'How did they do that??' Kierra thought. But her question was answered immediately when she saw James arranging a cloak around them.  
  
'invisibility cloak…' she thought. She smiled broadly and decided it couldn't hurt to show herself to them, and ask where they were going, when suddenly…  
  
"Come on!" hissed Sirius, "Remus is waiting! He's probably torn down have the shrieking shack by now!"   
  
Kierra almost stopped breathing at hearing this. Wasn't Remus supposed to be in the hospital wing, resting? Was Remus just faking sick? No…but then…why would he be in the shrieking shack? There was only one way to find out. Kierra tiptoed around the suit of armor and opened the face piece, and dropped Gregory inside. 'Please stay quiet in there…' Kierra silently prayed as she turned back around to look for the boys. But she couldn't see them anymore. No matter, she knew they were heading to the shrieking shack.   
  
Kierra pulled out her wand and quickly disillusioned herself, so her body would blend in with the background. Since she did not have an invisibility cloak, this was her best way of staying hidden.  
  
As Kierra came outside, a thought suddenly hit her. How would they get inside the shrieking shack? It's a distance from here…and it's occupied by spirits…  
  
Once again, her question was answered when the marauders pulled of the invisibility cloak, not two or three feet from the Whomping Willow.  
  
'What on earth are they doing there?' she thought. She backed away and hid behind a nearby rose bush to observe. She watched in amazement, as Sirius transformed into a great black dog, James transformed into a stag, and Peter (though she could barely see…) turned into a rat.   
  
'They're animagi?? I never saw them on the registry…' she thought to herself. She watched as Peter ran up to the whomping willow, jumped up and pulled a large knot on the trunk. With that, the stag and the dog disappeared into a small hole in the willow.   
  
'That knot must make the willow safe…' Kierra thought as she ran up to the willow. 'Well, here goes…' Kierra took a deep breath and crawled in after them. After crawling through for several minutes, Kierra finally came to an opening. This must be the shrieking shack. In front of her was an old set of stairs. Did she dare go up them? They looked as if they would creak, or perhaps break, if someone stepped on them. Just then, Kierra could hear four figures rushed down the steps. Kierra immediately dove to the floor and crawled underneath the bed that sat in the middle of the room.   
  
She suddenly heard something that made her body shiver. A howl. Like a wolf's….followed by a loud bark. Too scared to take a peak from underneath the bed, Kierra lay still under the bed.  
  
Suddenly she heard one of the animals jump onto the bed, forcing Kierra to shut her eyes and hold her breath. 'What the hell is going on???' she thought fearfully.   
  
Moments later, she felt the animal jump off the bed, and head towards the door.  
  
Kierra held her breath and pulled herself forward, trying to get a look at what just happened, but stopped as her hand touched something soft.  
  
Through the darkness, Kierra could make out what seemed to be a pile of neatly folded clothes. They looked like they belonged to a man…  
  
But Kierra did not have time to dwell on the clothes, as at that very instant, she heard a bark coming from outside.  
  
'That has to be Sirius…' Kierra thought as she pulled herself out from underneath the bed.   
  
Quietly, Kierra tiptoed outside. She looked down at herself, and realized the disillusionment charm had already worn off. She was never very good with charms….  
  
Kierra pulled out her wand to redo the spell, when a piercing howl filled the air. Startled by the noise, Kierra shrieked and dropped her wand. She was about to bend over to pick it up, when suddenly, she heard a cracking noise; the sound of a twig breaking in two.   
  
She looked up, only to see a wolf standing in front of her. No…it wasn't a wolf…the snout was flatter…it had to be….a werewolf… 


	19. Chapter 19: One of a Kind

A/N: Should've mentioned this in the previous chapter, but oh well; here goes. I just wanted to note that I decided to cut out the fight between Sirius and Dominique (its in Long Lost Love…) and thus, naturally, all the stuff that would've led up to it and what would've followed from it…(In LLL it appeared right after the party…) I decided that it just didn't go along very well with Dominique's background…I mean, she was raped less than a year ago, she's not exactly confident, sexually…So anyway, if all of that made sense (given that you've read LLL), great. If not, don't worry about it; I don't expect people to remember every little thing I've written; I'm not JKR J :P I'm just meticulous about my writing like her, that's all ;)  
  
Chapter 19: One of a Kind  
  
Kierra's feet would not move at first; but as the werewolf took another step towards her, she immediately began to back away. 'turn around and run…turn around and run…' she thought to herself. But she could not…she was too afraid of turning around, should the werewolf lunge at her when she turned her back.   
  
Just as she decided to take the risk and turn around, Kierra tripped over her shoelace and fell backwards.   
  
Kierra immediately sat up; just as she was about to grab her wand, the werewolf ran straight at her. Kierra screamed. The werewolf pounced on top of her, scratching her arm as it did so. It opened its mouth, revealing many large, razor sharp teeth. Just as the werewolf dropped its head forward towards Kierra's neck, it was knocked backwards by a force.  
  
Kierra turned around and saw a stag kicking the werewolf. Seconds later, the dog and the rat appeared on the scene and followed the example of the stag. Kierra got up and reached for her wand, when suddenly….  
  
"COME ON!!!!" It was James, human again. He pulled Kierra by the arm and ran across the field, towards the castle. "HOLD HIM OFF PADFOOT!!" he shouted over his shoulder.  
  
Kierra glanced back momentarily. The werewolf had made to go after her and James, but was being held off by the dog. She then saw the rat jump up and down, and soon the werewolf was chasing after the rat, though constantly being slowed down by the dog, which nipped at the werewolf's feet.   
  
When they were a safe distance away from the animals, and near the castle, James finally let go of Kierra.  
  
"Are you ok??" he asked, "you didn't get bitten did you??"  
  
"No…no…just scratched…" Kierra breathed, "you saved me…thanks…"  
  
"Don't mention it…"  
  
"James…what were all of you doing with a werewolf??"  
  
"Nothing…I…wait…what were you doing out here in the first place?? You're not supposed to be out here!"  
  
"Neither are you! I was…actually..following you guys…"  
  
"What??"  
  
"I was looking for Alice's toad…and then I heard you guys…and then you mentioned Remus's name…I was curious"—Kierra stopped short and gasped. James looked at her warily. "Is he….was he…the…werewolf??"  
  
James looked down again and nodded sadly.   
  
"Oh…my gosh…" she said quietly, "sick every month…Moony…it all makes sense…"  
  
"Yea…"  
  
"How?? When did it happen??"  
  
"When he was a kid…way before he even came here…"  
  
"So Dominique would have known…" Kierra continued.  
  
"yea…she knows…"  
  
"And…you guys are animagi…because…why?"   
  
"A werewolf's a threat only to humans…when we're there as animals…it keeps him calmer…makes his transformations a bit more bearable…"  
  
"How long have you guys"—  
  
"Since 5th year…"   
  
"And no one knows?"  
  
"No one… and we need to keep it that way…we're not registered, you know…so you have to keep it quiet…understand? Or I'll put a memory charm on you."  
  
Kierra looked at James to see if he meant that last statement. His face was stony and pale and he was frowning. Kierra gulped. He was dead serious.   
  
"Course, I won't say anything…" she answered.   
  
"Come on," James said, after a moment of silence, "I want you to go inside…"  
  
"What about you??"  
  
"Me? I'm gonna go back to Remus and the guys…" Just then, Sirius, as a dog, came running up to them, with the invisibility cloak in his mouth. He dropped it onto the grass, and transformed back into a human.  
  
"You ok, Kierra?" he asked quickly; Kierra nodded. Sirius picked up the cloak and handed it to James. "He was trying to get the cloak…maybe Kierra should wear it back to the castle so she doesn't get caught…what were you doing out here anyway??" he asked hoarsely.   
  
"Spying on us…" James answered.   
  
"Not spying!!" Kierra protested, "Ok, yea, spying…" she muttered, when James and Sirius gave her angry looks, "but I wasn't trying to be nosy or anything! I just heard you mention Remus's name! I was worried about him, that's all!"  
  
Sirius frowned. "that doesn't mean"—  
  
"doesn't mean what?? That I can't go and risk my neck for him like you guys? He's my boyfriend, and I care about him!" Kierra retorted. "And don't you tell me that I can't do so and so…you're not my parents! You guys aren't acting like angels yourselves, sneaking out like this, becoming illegal animagi"—  
  
"And you better not tell anyone"—  
  
"Yea, James already threatened me…I won't tell anyone…" Kierra cut Sirius off.  
  
James glanced down the hill to look for Remus. "Er, Sirius…if neither of us are down there…who's keeping him in check? Surely Peter can't…he's too tiny as a rat…"  
  
Sirius smiled slightly. "Wormtail? Yea, he's keeping him occupied…he climbed on top of a tree branch to distract him…but we better head back, who knows how long that'll last…"   
  
"Right…" James said. "Ok, Kierra, go back up to the castle." He said as he and Sirius turned to leave.  
  
Kierra stared after them, balling her fists. Who did they think they were? "No" she said.  
  
Sirius and James turned around. "What?" James asked.  
  
"I don't want to go."  
  
"Well, you don't really have a choice" Sirius said firmly, "go up to the castle now, or else."  
  
"Or else what?" Kierra challenged.  
  
"Or else we won't save your butt again should he come up here and attack you." James replied.   
  
Kierra pulled out her wand and sat on the grass. "Fine…I'm prepared."  
  
Sirius marched back up to Kierra and towered over her. "Why the hell are you trying to act so difficult? Just be a good kid and go inside!"  
  
Kierra stood up quickly. "I'm not a kid! So quit patronizing me!"  
  
Sirius chuckled. "No one's patronizing you"—  
  
"Yuh huh! Both of you are! Now, I'm gonna stay here until he comes back…and you two aren't going to get in my way." She said with finality as she sat back down.  
  
Sirius sighed. "Fine…have it your way…just don't come crying to us if you're a werewolf before the end of this night."   
  
James glared at Sirius and nudged him in the ribs. "Don't say that!" he hissed as they went back down the hill, transforming into their respective creatures in the process.   
  
Kierra rested her wand on the grass next to her. So she had a few hours to kill until the moon died away. No big deal. Those jerks…treating her like a little kid…as if she snuck out of bed past her bedtime…well, ok, that was exactly what she did…but they had no right to tell her off for that…chastising her for caring about her boyfriend….her boyfriend…who was a werewolf.   
  
Kierra shuttered at the thought…that minutes ago, Remus was on top of her, inches away from biting her, nearly turning her into a werewolf…  
  
But how could he be one? She had always read the most negative things about werewolves…they were considered the most mistrustful, dangerous half-humans in the wizarding world, aside from giants. She had read horror stories of werewolves who lived savagely even in their human form…but Remus didn't seem like that…no, she couldn't go and assume that's how he was, now that she knew he was a werewolf…He was so sweet, and charming…intelligent…  
  
All this time…she had known him…well, known who he was, rather, for about seven years…and she never knew…  
  
As the hours went by, Kierra's thoughts remained on Remus. She was beginning to feel very sorry for him. She remembered reading in DADA that transformations were very painful…she frowned at the thought of the description she had read…they had been very detailed and it pained her to think that Remus had been going through it every month.  
  
'Well, werewolves have got plenty of reason to be cranky…with what they've got to go through…' Kierra thought to herself, which further increased her respect for Remus; despite his condition, he still managed to be so genteel and pleasant…  
  
Before Kierra realized it was nearly day break, she had been brought back into the real world when she saw Sirius, Peter and James come up the hill, supporting a staggering Remus.  
  
"Kierra…" he murmured. He still looked pallid and weak, and looked like he was about to crumble to the ground. "I attacked you…I'm sorry…I'm so…"—  
  
Kierra immediately stood up at hearing her name, and she walked up to Remus. "Remus," she whispered, looking into his eyes, which showed fatigue, "are you alright?"   
  
Remus shuttered slightly as Kierra touched his face. She didn't hate him? Hadn't he almost turned her into a werewolf?  
  
"Yea…I'm ok…" he said at last. "Are you?"  
  
Kierra nodded as she looked at the ground. Why couldn't she say anything? In the hours she spent alone, she had memorized a speech she would give him, explaining that she only came spying because she cared about him and she was worried, but now, her mind had gone blank; so she simply followed the boys back up to the castle, who also remained silent.   
  
As the group finally approached the fat lady portrait, Sirius turned around and hissed at Kierra, "Now when we get back inside, we're all going straight to bed, and that's an order!"   
  
"Don't talk to her like that" Remus whispered; it seemed to have taken all the energy he had left to say that, for he almost collapsed when the words left his mouth. The boys quickly steadied him onto his feet; Sirius threw another warning glance at Kierra before going through the portrait hole. Kierra made to follow, but she bumped right into Sirius, as he had stopped. Already irritated by his rudeness, Kierra pushed Sirius forward and walked around him, but then she also stopped. Dominique, Alice and Lily were sitting in the common room.   
  
"Girls!" Sirius said quickly, "What are you"—  
  
"Where the hell have you all been??" Lily asked, turning to Kierra. "We've been worried sick!!"  
  
"What's wrong with Remus?" Alice asked walking up to him, "What happened to all of you?"  
  
"Look, it's none of your"—  
  
"Take him upstairs." Dominique interrupted; she was the only one who seemed calm. "Put him to bed, he needs sleep."  
  
No one said a word. The boys did as they were told, and helped Remus up the steps. Once they disappeared, everyone turned to Kierra.  
  
"What happened??" Lily asked at once. "Where were you??"  
  
"I was outside…"  
  
"Doing what??"   
  
"Let's wait for the guys to come downstairs." Dominique said. "Let's get all of this straightened out…though I think I've got a good idea as to what's happened…"   
  
Seconds later, the three boys came back downstairs, all looking a bit nervous.   
  
"Um…listen guys…" James began, "it really doesn't matter"—  
  
"No, you listen," Dominique interrupted him. "All of us are either friends, or boyfriends or girlfriends now…I think we can trust each other to tell the truth…"  
  
"But Remus"—  
  
"Won't mind if everyone knew…anyway the only people who don't now are Alice and Lily…"  
  
"Know what?" Lily and Alice asked together.  
  
"How do you know I know?" Kierra asked.   
  
Dominique waved a hand impatiently. "Even if he did mind, he'd be quick to forgive, he's wonderful about that…ok…so, Remus is a werewolf"—  
  
Lily and Alice gasped. "He's"—  
  
"yea, a werewolf" Dominique continued, pacing around the room, "I've known the whole time…I was with him when he got the bite…the guys have known too, they figured it out ages ago, Remus told me in a letter…"  
  
"This is great…" James muttered, "just great…"  
  
"But why have they been disappearing too?" Alice asked, pointing at the three boys.  
  
"We just want to be with him, to comfort him!" James said.  
  
"But werewolves are a danger to humans!!" she replied.  
  
"They're animagi…" Dominique said.  
  
"What??" James, Sirius, and Peter said at once.  
  
"How did you know??" Kierra asked.  
  
"The marauders map…" Dominique replied, "the names…Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs…they said those were their nicknames…I understood Moony right away…since I knew what Remus was…but I couldn't understand why the other three would have such names…then it hit me…if Remus had a name that was animal oriented…perhaps the rest did…so I became suspicious that they were animagi…I did some research…"  
  
"That's why you kept reading books on animagi!" Lily said.  
  
Dominique nodded. "Then I confirmed my hypothesis my watching you guys at night, during a full moon…I've got a pair of omnoculars…and I saw you all out a few months ago…"  
  
"Hey, you said you were stargazing that night!" Alice exclaimed.  
  
Dominique shrugged. "So, I figured you all kept him company. I saw that you weren't on the registry, and thus illegal, so I didn't mention it to anyone…and Kierra, since tonight was a full moon, and you've just come in with all of them… I assumed you just found out all this stuff?"  
  
Kierra nodded.   
  
At last, James spoke up. "You remind me of Dumbledore…knowing everything…it's a bit scary…" he said, smiling slightly.  
  
"I got his genes I guess…" Dominique replied. "Ok…so all of us know…let's just keep this amongst ourselves…"  
  
"Yea, and I hope you guys treat him the same," James said, turning to the girls.  
  
"Yes," Sirius chimed in, "He's really the same old Remus…he just gets all hairy and vicious once a month…kinda like you girls do…only his thing lasts for only one night, while you girls have yours for a week…oww!" Dominique had hit him in the arm and she passed by him to go upstairs.  
  
"Aw, your cycle is in sync with Remus's! How cute!" Sirius teased her. Dominique, didn't look back; she only stuck her hand out and gave him the finger before she disappeared up the stairs, causing everyone to snigger.   
  
"Touché!" Sirius said, as he got up with James and Peter. "Well, night everyone. I suggest you all go to sleep as well. You guys can bother Remus in the morning."  
  
Soon after, the common room was deserted except for Kierra, Lily and Alice.   
  
"Yea, we should head up to bed too…we've got class in like…three hours….let's try to get some sleep…"  
  
Kierra groaned. "I'm never going to wake up for class…and it's potions too!!" she said as she groaned again.  
  
Lily patted her on the shoulder. "I'll wake you all up, don't worry."   
  
"Kierra," Alice began, as they headed up the stairs, "are you o.k. with Remus still? I mean, you still like him"—  
  
"Of course I do!" Kierra said at once. "And I want to tell him that first thing tomorrow. I just hope he isn't mad at me for finding out…"  
  
Hours later, Lily woke up to the sound of her alarm. She smacked at it several times from underneath her covers, failing to hit the off button. (it's magically powered!!) Grumbling, she sat up in her bed and reached over to turn it off, when she looked at the time. 'oh no!!' she thought, jumping out of bed.   
  
"GUYS WAKE UP WE'VE GOT CLASS IN 15 MINUTES!!!" She ran to each girl's bed in turn, pulling off their covers and throwing them onto the floor.  
  
"Lilyyyyyy!!!!" She could hear Kierra screaming in her sleep, as Lily ran to the bathroom to take a 30 second shower. When she came out of the bathroom, using one hand to brush her hair, and the other hand to brush her teeth, Lily walked over to Dominique's bed, and kicked up her leg, and tried pushing her over with it in attempts to wake her up.  
  
"Get up!!" she shouted, accidentally swallowing a mouthful of toothpaste. 'little brats..' she thought as she ran to the bathroom to rinse her mouth.   
  
When she came out, she saw Dominique opening her eyes. "I'm tired…" she said with a loud yawn.   
  
"Too bad…we've got class in 10 minutes, now move!!" Lily said, pulling her out of bed.   
  
Dominique glared at Lily as she went to the bathroom, muttering curse words on her way.  
  
Finally, Alice had also gotten up. "I dreamt that Remus was a werewolf…" she said sleepily.   
  
"He IS one…" Lily said irritably as she hastily pulled on her clothes. "Go get ready, hurry up!!"   
  
"Yea, yea…." Alice said, as she walked to the bathroom. Just then Dominique came running out.   
  
"Lily!! We've got five minutes til class starts!! Why didn't you wake us up??" Dominique shouted, hastily going through her trunk to find her uniform.   
  
"We've got seven minutes actually," Lily answered, as she pulled her socks on. "And I'm not your mom…now, since I'm ready I'm going to run downstairs and grab us some breakfast…the rest of you hurry up…and someone please get Kierra up!!" she called as she sprinted out the door.  
  
Dominique glanced down at Kierra as she brushed her hair. 'Oh good grief…' she thought as she pulled out her wand. Dominique quickly muttered a spell and her brush flew into the air and began brushing Dominique's hair by itself, leaving her hands free to get Kierra up.  
  
"Kierra…" Dominique said, shaking her gently. "Kierra, get up…we've got class!!"   
  
"mummy argurumphaaa…" Kierra muttered in her sleep.   
  
Dominique smiled at Kierra's jibberish, but quickly resolved to be stern with her.  
  
"Alright, you leave me no choice!" Dominique took her wand out again and pointed it at Kierra. Instantly, water sprayed out of the tip of her wand, and soon Kierra was screaming foul obscenities.   
  
"Stopp!!!!" she shrieked as she turned over onto her stomach and curled into a ball.   
  
"Kierra, get up!!" Dominique shouted at her, pulling her up forcefully.  
  
"I hate you!!" Kierra cried as Dominique yanked her out of bed.   
  
"Oh, grow up…" Dominique said, pushing her into the bathroom. "If you're not out in one minute, I'm coming in after you."  
  
Just as the bathroom door slammed, Lily came racing back into the dormitory.  
  
"Muffins for everyone!!" she huffed, "so we can eatem on our way to class…"   
  
"wow…that's got to be record timing!!" Alice exclaimed as she hastily put her clothes on.   
  
"I know, seriously, thanks Lily!" Dominique chimed in as she grabbed her cloak.  
  
"Where's Kierra?" Lily asked.  
  
"Bathroom…"  
  
"She needs to hurry!" Lily said, glancing at her watch. "four minutes!!"  
  
"Ok, you start dragging her out," Dominique said, "Alice and I will get her clothes…"  
  
"I don't wanna go to class!!" Kierra whined as Dominique helped her into her blouse.   
  
"Shut up Kierra," Alice said, brushing her hair.  
  
"Ok, let's move people!!!" Lily shouted, grabbing her bag. "We've got a minute left, if we run, we'll make it on time!" she called as she opened the door.  
  
"Alright, let's get moving…" Dominique said, picking up her bag and muffin.  
  
"But I'm hungry"— Kierra said, but Alice had stuffed her muffin into Kierra's mouth, shutting her up.   
  
The girls sprinted down the stairs, led by Lily, and made it right into class just as Professor Kiefer turned around to face the class, as he usually did at 8 o'clock on the dot.   
  
The four girls sighed together in relief as they took their assigned seats.   
  
"Very close, girls…" Professor Kiefer said. "Another second, and you all would've had detentions…now then….today, we'll be going over the ingredients of the potion that we'll be making on Wednesday…."  
  
His voice drawled on.   
  
Dominique glanced around the room. All four marauders had also made it to class. Peter sat with Kierra, Remus was sitting next to Lily, Sirius was next to Lucius Malfoy, while James sat next to Snape. Dominique did a double take at Peter and Kierra's desk; Kierra had her head slumped against the desk; she was fast asleep.   
  
Deciding that it would be too risky to try to wake Kierra up, Dominique decided to keep Professor Kiefer's attention away from Kierra, by participating as much as possible in class, so he wouldn't trouble himself by calling on her.   
  
"Now, who can tell me where you can find this particular ingredient? Er…Miss Fiore…?"   
  
"In freshwater ponds, sir.." Dominique answered promptly. Half the class turned to look at her in surprise. After all, Dominique never bothered to pay attention in class, let alone try to participate.   
  
"Yes, that is correct!" Professor Kiefer said, looking slightly impressed, and slightly flattered that Dominique had actually taken the trouble to pay attention in his class.  
  
Potions continued in that manner for the entire class period, and to Dominique's relief, Professor Kiefer never took notice of Kierra. When class ended, Dominique saw Peter nudging Kierra to wake up.   
  
As the group took their seats in their next class, DADA, Kierra was about to put her head down again to get some more sleep, when she noticed the person sitting next to her.  
  
"Remus!" Though everyone was tired and fatigued from the night before, Remus seemed to look the worst.   
  
"Kierra…before you go to sleep…I wanted to talk to you…since we've got a few minutes…"  
  
"Right…listen…I hope you're not mad at me…"  
  
"Mad at you??"  
  
"Yea…for spying on you all…I'm sorry…I was just worried about you…"  
  
"It's alright…I actually wanted to apologize to you…"  
  
"For what??"  
  
"For…I dunno…well…for what I am"—  
  
Kierra sat up straight. "For what you are??" she said in a sharp whisper, so no one could hear them. "Remus, there's nothing to be sorry about!"  
  
"Well…if you er…don't want to see me anymore because of this…I totally understand…"  
  
Kierra gaped at him. "Do you not want to see me anymore because I know?" she asked with a frown.  
  
"What?? No, I thought you wouldn't want to go out with me, since you know…"  
  
"Why would you think that?? Remus, of course I want to keep seeing you…"  
  
"Really?? You mean, you don't care that I'm…"  
  
"of course not! That's doesn't make you any less a person, Remus!"  
  
Remus stared at Kierra a little longer, but then sighed and smiled. "Well…this has just made my day…no, my whole year, I think…"  
  
Kierra smiled. "Glad it has…oh by the way…erm…Lily and Alice know too…Dominique told"—  
  
"I know," Remus said, "Lily and I were passing notes in potions, she explained it all to me…I'm ok with them knowing…I trust you all…"   
  
"glad you do…" Kierra replied, "erm, Remus, quick question…"  
  
"Yea?"  
  
"Can I borrow your notes for this class? I'm really tired and I wanna sleep…"  
  
"Of course…I'll wake you up at the end of class…"  
  
"You're the best…I'll stay awake in runes, so you can sleep then…I know you need rest too…." Kierra said as she rested her head in her arms.   
  
Remus smiled. "thanks…that would be great…by the way, are you"— Remus stopped as he glanced down at Kierra. She was already fast asleep. He smiled inwardly as he pulled out a blank sheet of parchment to take notes on. Kierra was certainly one of a kind; there was no way he'd ever let her go. 


	20. Chapter 20: Making Plans

Chapter 20: Making Plans  
  
Lily yawned as she sat down for dinner. Only three hours of sleep. Ridiculous. "Sleep well?" Sirius asked her sarcastically.  
"Yes, thanks…" Lily answered with equal sarcasm as she listlessly poked at her food. 'Screw homework', she thought, 'I'm going to bed early tonight…' "Sorry we kept you up all night…" James said, looking at Lily apologetically. Lily looked up, slightly startled at his politeness. "It's ok…" she said.  
  
"Good evening people!!" Kierra said as she and Remus joined the group. "Gee, you're awfully perky…" Dominique commented.  
"Wonder why…" Sirius said, looking mildly amused, "only slept through half her classes today…" Kierra only grinned. She slowly glanced around the great hall, and suddenly realized that it had been decorated with wreaths, lights and trees.  
"Christmas….oh shit…." Kierra murmured, causing Remus to laugh.  
"Kind of snuck up on you, did it?" he asked.  
"yea…." "Oh, that reminds me," Dominique interrupted, "what are all of your plans for Christmas break?" "My family and Frank's family are going to get together…" Alice said. "I'm going home…" Remus said.  
"Me too…" said Lily. James and Peter nodded, indicating they were too. Dominique looked at Sirius.  
"Well, I haven't got a place to go now…seeing as how I ran away from home"— "Padfoot, you can stay with us, you know that!!" James interjected, looking slightly offended.  
"Oh, right, I"—Sirius stopped and looked up as an owl swooped over him, dropping a letter in his bowl of soup. "Great…" he muttered as he tore the envelope open.  
"Who's it from mate?" James asked.  
Sirius sighed. "Dear old mummy…well, isn't she a sweetheart…" he said as he scanned the letter.  
"What's she say?" Remus asked.  
Sirius held out the letter and cleared his throat, and spoke in a high pitched, heavy voice. "Dear Sirius: As the holidays are approaching, I have been feeling particularly benevolent…" Sirius stopped to laugh. "Benevolent? Hah…alright…I feel particularly benevolent…and so I decided to extend one last invitation for you to return to your home. ("Home?? Please…") Come back with your brother Regulus ("he's not my brother!"), and we'll have a jolly good holiday together, with the rest of the family. Narcissa and Bellatrix will also be joining us, the lovely dears. Which reminds me…Regulus wrote to me several weeks ago, informing me that you've found yourself a girlfriend…" Sirius stopped as he looked at the following sentences. Sirius frowned and tossed the letter onto the table.  
"That old hag…" he said bitterly. "What'd she say??" James asked.  
"Read it for yourself, I won't read it aloud…" Sirius replied, handing James the letter. James picked it up and held it out so the others could read with him:  
  
"….you've found yourself a girlfriend…Dominique Fiore, some French girl I understand…and young man, if you even plan on stepping foot into our noble house again, you certainly mustn't be dragging in some filthy-blooded tramp. It's bad enough her blood is tainted…Regulus tells us she's half Italian…not even pure French….impure in every respect. You're much better off courting young Bellatrix or Narcissa, they're sweet girls. Discard of this filthy halfblood immediately, and come home, make amends with your family. Your Mum".  
  
James dropped the letter on the table and glanced from Dominique to Sirius, and back to Dominique again. Dominique stared down at the letter, unable to produce any sound. Suddenly, Sirius snatched the letter and ripped it into shreds. "Stinking pureblood fanatic…." He said coldly. He then turned to James. "Yea, I think I'll stay over with your family, if that's alright…" he said. "Of course…" James replied.  
"See what I've got for family?" Sirius said, glancing at Dominqiue. "I'm sorry you saw that…but don't get offended…she's a senseless old woman who can't see past the tip of her nose…her words mean nothing to me…" Dominique nodded.  
"By the way, what are you doing in the holidays?" Remus asked quickly, trying to change the subject.  
"Oh!" Dominique snapped out of her trance. "I dunno…I guess I'll stay here…with Dumbledore I guess…" "Wait…if you're going to be here, maybe I can stay as well!" Sirius said. He turned to James. "You won't mind, will you?" "Of course not." James replied.  
"You want to spend your holidays with me and Dumbledore?" Dominique asked with a smile.  
"Sure!" Sirius replied.  
"Oh, before I forget," Remus said, "Dominique, I wanted to ask you if you could come to my house, maybe after Christmas, if you want to stay here for that…my parents would love to see you , it's been a while you know…you should come too Sirius, they haven't seen you in a while either." "I'd love to…" Dominique replied, "you wanna?" she asked Sirius.  
"Sounds good to me!" Sirius said.  
"And, er…Kierra…" Remus began, a bit nervously, "I know we haven't been seeing each other long…but…maybe…if you'd like…you could come visit too? After you've spent time with your family, of course…" he said quickly.  
Kierra smiled. "I'll have to check with my parents first, but I think they'll be o.k. with it. I'll send them an owl tonight." "Well, anyone else want to come over? You all are welcome to!" Remus said, turning to the others.  
"I'm going to Greece with my family…" Lily said.  
"I'm with the Longbottoms…" Alice replied.  
"You know how my parents are, Moony…" James said, "I'm under house arrest whenever I come home…" "Same…" Peter said.  
"Alright," Remus said with finality, "so, I can expect Kierra, Dominique and Sirius then…via floo…December 31st then?" Kierra, Dominique and Sirius nodded. "I can't wait to meet your parents!" Kierra said excitedly.  
  
Later that evening, James waltzed into the library with a book under his arm. He needed a quiet place to read; for once he actually wanted to concentrate on his schoolwork….. James stopped short when he reached the 2nd floor. To his left, he spotted Lily sitting at a table, flipping through magazines.  
Forgetting his urgent need to study, James grinned and walked up to her. However, a voice in his head, which sounded distinctly like Dominique's, hissed at him "be her friend first!!" which caused him to slow his pace down. Just then, Lily looked up at him.  
"Hi Lily!" James said immediately "Oh, hi!" Lily answered a bit more perkily than usual. She smiled at him as she quickly shoved her magazines under her pile of books.  
James noticed this and fought the temptation to ask her what she was hiding. Instead, he asked, "Can I join you?" "Er, ok…" "Thanks." James pulled up a chair and sat across from Lily. "So um, did you want to talk to me about those proposals for that prefects' meeting?" she asked.  
"Oh!! Right!" 'shit….how do I get out of this one?? Make something up….' James wracked his brains for an idea.  
"Well…what is it?" Lily asked.  
"Erm…ok…I don't have any…" "But the other day you said"— "Yea I know…I just made that up…" "What?? Why??" "I wanted to talk to you…but then I chickened out and made that up…" "You…chickened out??" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow and looking slightly amused. Chickening out…Lily never would've guessed that James Potter could ever be guilty of that.  
"Yea…sorry…" "Er…what did you want to talk to me about that made you so nervous??" "Nothing…I mean…nothing in particular…I just wanted to talk…with you…" "I don't get it…" "I mean, any exchange of words would have sufficed...." "Oh"— "I really like you Lily…I mean, not just as a girl and oh you're pretty, but I mean…I like you as a person…I like your company…" James looked down at his book. What the hell…what on earth possessed him to say that out loud?  
Lily looked at him with her startling green eyes. After a moment, which seemed like an eternity to James, she smiled.  
"You think I'm an idiot, don't you?" he asked.  
Lily let out a small laugh. "No, not really. I think you're nice." "I can't be that nice though…" Lily frowned. "What makes you say that?" "I'm not nice enough for you…you don't even like me…" Lily was slightly startled by his bluntness. She looked at him; He was frowning, and slightly pink from embarrassment. He had such a cute boyish look to him sometimes.  
"It's not that I don't like you…I do…and you're nice, really! So nice, in fact, that you…you're taking me out this Saturday, to Hogsmead…" she said reluctantly, with a smile.  
James's jaw dropped. "Did you just ask me out??" he asked incredulously. Lily laughed. "Did you hear me ask a question?" "No…so…we're just going out…?" "If you don't want to…" "No, no!! I WANT TO!!" "Mr. Potter!!! DON'T RAISE YOUR VOICE IN THE LIBRARY!!!" Madam Pince shrieked. "Sorry!" he called back at her, and dropping his voice, he said to Lily, "Look who's talking..geez!" causing Lily to giggle. "So…Saturday…we're going out…because I like you…and you like me?" he asked shyly. "Well, why else would we be going out?" "I duno..I just…wow, I feel like I'm dreaming…" "You're not…just…go away before I change my mind…" "Ok! Er I…hug you?" he asked. Lily looked at him appraisingly. "Um…ok?" "Great!" James said, walking over to Lily and wrapping his arms around her. He sighed as he took in her scent. "It's just like I imagined…" he murmured.  
"Potter, you are so weird…" Lily giggled, as she felt herself blush.  
  
"So where exactly is this room?" Dominique asked as Sirius led her down the corridor on the fifth floor. "Right here…" he said as they stopped in front of a wall.  
"There's nothing there…" "I know…let's just pace around here, and concentrate hard…and it'll appear…" "Erm…concentrate on what…?" Dominique asked. But Sirius was already pacing around, and in deep thought. Suddenly a door materialized in front of them.  
"Excellent…" he murmured as he took Dominique's hand and pulled her inside.  
  
Dominique stopped short as she entered the room. It was small, and softly lit by candles. There was a bed made against the wall, and soft music played in the background.  
"wow…" "Lovely, isn't it?" he asked.  
"How did you…?" "It's called the room of requirement…the guys and I discovered it a few years ago, when we were trying to find an empty room to try our animagus transformation…anyway, it changes every time…it basically changes to cater to whatever you need…" "That's…incredible…" "I know…and can you guess what we need this room for tonight?" "Oh!" Sirius grinned mischievously as he touched her hips.  
"Sirius"— He her cut off with his mouth. 'No,' she thought, 'This can't happen to me again…' she thought, as she felt her back being pressed against the cold wall. But she didn't fight back though. She felt her body weaken as Sirius's hands moved underneath her skirt, caressing her skin and fingering her panties. She let out a muffled groan as he thrust his pelvis against hers. "You like that?" he murmured in her ear, as he felt the muscles between her legs contract at his touch.  
"No" she gasped. "Don't lie" he whispered back, as he placed his hands on her hips and let them run down her thighs, coaxing them to open up to him.  
  
It was as if she were under the imperius curse. Her head told her not to let him get closer to her. Her brain was screaming at her to get away from him. But her brain didn't seem able to get that message across to her limbs, for they would not carry out the orders. But there was another force in her, which seemed to be battling with her brain, telling her to be carried away by him, because he wasn't her ex. He was Sirius.  
  
Before she knew what was happening, Dominique found herself being carried by Sirius, and being placed on the bed that sat in the corner of the room. Sirius climbed on top of her and reached under her skirt; he took hold of her underwear, but then let go of it when Dominique smacked his hands away.  
"Sorry!" she said immediately. And she really was. She was sorry for how she felt. "I don't know…I didn't like it last time…" 'How could I have said that??' she thought miserably in her head. He probably thought she was an idiot. "You'll like it this time, I promise…" he murmured. He pressed against her, but stopped.  
She was crying.  
He pulled away immediately. "D, I'm sorry…I didn't mean…was it really that bad?? We don't have to if you don't want to…" he stammered.  
Dominique sat up quickly on the bed and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry"— "No…it's ok…" "Gosh, I feel so stupid…" "You're not…you wanna talk about it though?" "No…" Dominique said quickly. But a voice in her head, that matched with Lily's stern face, echoed in her head, 'you should tell him…' "yes…" she said, "yes…it's just that…" "your last…experience…wasn't very good?" Sirius asked.  
"Right…because…well…I was raped…" Sirius gasped. "What??" "Another reason why I came here, aside from my parents being killed. My last boyfriend…he did it…on the last day of school…it was my first time…" "Son of a"— "I'm sorry…I know you're not him…and you're nothing like him…" "It's alright, I understand…" Dominique looked at Sirius. He was looking at her with much concern, though she could see a trace of disappointment. Suddenly, guilt seemed to overtake her.  
"I'm sorry for ruining this for you…" "Don't you think about that…you've ruined nothing!" he replied, cupping her face in his hands. "You mean a lot to me. Sex doesn't…well ok, who am I kidding, it does…but it means nothing if the feelings are reciprocated...I mean, isn't that what it's about? It's an act of love…" Dominique smiled. "You know what? I think I'm ready…we can do it…" Sirius gaped at her. "No, I'm not going to make you…" "You're not! I know you're not! I want to…really…now that I know you really care about me…it's reassuring…" "Are you sure?" "Positive" "Alright….but if at any point, you don't"— "I'll tell you to stop, ok…" Dominique said hastily, pulling Sirius on her again.  
Sirius smiled as he stroked his fingers down her neck. "Let's take this nice and slow, D. We've got all night, after all…"  
  
The next morning, Dominique woke up earlier than usual. Perhaps it was because her bed felt unusually different. She opened her eyes, and suddenly remembered that she was still in the room of requirement. She made to get up, but was pulled back into bed. She turned around to see that Sirius was already awake, and grinning at her.  
"No good morning?" he asked as he kissed her cheek. Dominique smiled shyly. "How long have you been up?" "I dunno…ten, fifteen minutes I guess…" "You could've woken me up"— "I could've…but I liked watching you sleep…you were smiling in your sleep, you know…" "Oh…" Dominique blushed.  
Sirius smiled. "What were you dreaming about?" "Nothing…" "Oh come on, you can tell me…" "Well…I was just…dreaming about last night…reliving it…it was nice…" she said, turning redder.  
Sirius chuckled. "I'd have to agree with you there, that was a pretty good shag we"— "Shit do you hear that??" Dominique whispered. There were footsteps outside the room.  
"I don't think they'll find us…they can't see the door…unless they're looking for a room…let's get dressed anyway…" Sirius whispered, getting out of bed.  
  
As Dominique and Sirius sat down together at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, their friends stared at them wide eyed. "Where the hell were you last night??" Lily and Remus said at once.  
James and Kierra gasped at once. "You got laid!!" "What??" Sirius and Dominique exclaimed together, blushing in the process.  
"Oh you've got 'I've been shagged' written all over you!!" Kierra exclaimed.  
"A little louder, dear…professor Dumbledore's a few meters away you know…" Remus said with a smile.  
"And exactly how do you sense things like that, you great perv?" Lily demanded.  
"Sixth sense…" Kierra said.  
"Only the elite few have this gift…" James said seriously.  
Sirius cleared his throat. "Hey so enough about us…so, I hear our little Jamie's got a date with Evans tomorrow?" James smiled at Lily. "yep!!" Dominique raised an eyebrow at Lily for confirmation, at which she nodded. "Wow…about time Lily…" she said with a grin, "well, I'm not that hungry…I thought I'd just grab a muffin and head to class early…" Dominique said as she reached past Alice and grabbed a chocolate muffin. "I'll see you guys…" she said as she turned to leave.  
"We wanna hear all the juicy details later though!!" Kierra shouted after her. She, Alice and Lily fell into giggles but stopped when they saw Sirius staring at them.  
"You guys talk about that stuff??" "Of course! Don't you?" "Um, no…I mean, when it happens, yea…but we don't go into details…that's sick!!" "No it's not!" Kierra retorted. "It's fun!!" "So, do you guys always tell each other everything…about everything?" James asked.  
The girls nodded.  
"Even about how good he was?" Sirius asked.  
The girls sniggered. "Aw, you're not worried about Dominique's appraisal, are you?" Kierra asked. "I'm sure she'll give you a good evaluation…" "Of course I'm not worried!" Sirius interjected. "I was just curious!!" "Alright kids, I'm off…I wanna ask Dominique about this homework assignment thing…" he said quickly as he stalked off.  
  
"Hey, Dominique wait up!!" he called after her as he rounded the corner. Dominique turned around to face him. "Hey! What's up??" she asked, looking curiously at him. James stopped. How does one begin? "Er..ok…um…so, I'm taking Lily out tomorrow…and I…don't know what to do…" "What are you talking about?" "I mean, I don't know how to make it a perfect date! And I NEED it to be perfect…it's not every day Lily Evans is going to let me take her on a date…" Dominique smiled. "Ah, I see…and so you're coming to me because??" "Well, you're her good friend…I can't ask Alice or Kierra…I'm too close to them and they'll just laugh at me and tell Lily on me…am I right to think that you wouldn't do that?" Dominique laughed. "You're very right…but I don't think Alice or Kierra would do that to you either…well, no matter…um, so do you want me to just tell you what to do?" "Yes!! Walk me through the perfect date…for Lily…" "Alright…well, tell you what, I'll write you up an itinerary for tomorrow…" "Excellent! Thanks D!!" Dominique smiled. "No problem…although I wouldn't worry about where you took her and what you did…Lily wouldn't be too concerned…I think you should just worry about your tongue." "What do you mean?" "Just watch what you say…if you say the wrong thing you might annoy her…" James groaned. "Oh gosh…that's where I'm worst! Everyone tells me I've got such a big mouth and I never know when to shut up…D, what am I gonna do? I want to impress her!!" "Just…think before you talk!" "Oh that's a fat load of help!" James groaned again. "Urgh…I wish I could just…stick you in my head or something…and you could just tell me what to say…" Dominique paused for a moment and then looked at him thoughtfully. "There's an idea…" "Sticking you in my head?" She laughed. "Er, not exactly…not your head…hmm…there's a way…I could cancel my plans with Sirius…hmm…and if you don't mind…we could…" "We could what?? Have you got a plan? I'll do it…anything, if it means you're there and I get through this date perfectly…" "Yes, I've got a plan…" 


	21. Chapter 21: Three's Company Too

Chapter 21  
  
a/n: finally, I know...well, from here on, I really don't know how regularly I can update, because I just moved, I have my computer, but I don't have the internet...and then I'm starting classes soon, and I might be working...so I don't know how busy that'll keep me...nonetheless I'll try to post at least once a week (watch it be more often than that though... :P ) anyway just wanted to give a heads up...enjoy the chaper...just a warning, I (unintentionally) wrote it w/ a bit too much fluff (at least for my taste anyway...) I'd say it's fluffier than cotton candy...but hope u like it anyway! Anywhos...go on and read, whilst I finish outlining chapter 22 (I'm excited about this one, yipee!)  
  
Chapter 21: Three's Company Too  
  
"Good morning, love" Sirius said to Dominique as she came down the stairs into the Gryffindor common room the following morning. She in turn, smiled and planted a kiss on his lips before replying "good morning".;  
"So, shall we go then?" he asked, taking her hand.  
"Er, actually Sirus..."-;  
Just then James joined them and looked anxiously at Dominique. "Ready?" he asked. Sirius glanced questioningly at Dominique, then to James, before asking, "Ready for what?"  
"Uh, Sirius," Dominique began again, "I wanted to ask if we could possibly cancel our plans for today...see, James needs my help..."  
"Doing what?"  
"Well...he's got that date with Lily, and he asked me if I could tell him how to act on his date..." Dominique replied.  
"So, she had this idea, well, she kind of got it from me," James added with a grin, "Er, well, ok anyway," he said as Dominique rolled her eyes, "she had this idea, that she could feed me the right things to say, by just being with me on the date"-;  
"And Lily is...ok with this?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well...she doesn't know...and she won't know...here's the idea...I'm gonna put a shrinking spell on Dominique, so she's small enough to fit in my ear! So she can tell me what to say, without Lily hearing!!" James said excitedly.  
"James, you did remember to clean your ears out thoroughly, right? I'm not going to be sitting in there with a stench..." Dominique interjected.  
"Wait wait wait..." Sirius exclaimed, holding his hands up at James and Dominique. "Let me get this straight...you're gonna...shrink down to this size," he said, holding his thumb and index finger about a centimeter apart, "and you're gonna sit in James's ear...and tell him what to say to Lily??"  
Dominique and James nodded.  
"That's bizarre.." he said.  
"What?? Why?? It'll work!!" James exclaimed.  
"Why exactly do you need her to do this? Can't you just talk to Lily yourself?" Sirius asked.  
"Padfoot..I've done that since...3rd year...and look how long it's taken me to get on a date with her..." James said.  
"Fair point...ok, so...how long will you guys be?" Sirius asked, turning to Dominique.  
"No idea..." Dominique said.  
"Whole day, probably" James said at once. "The whole day??" Sirius exclaimed, "What about me??" "Er...what about you?" asked James.  
"Well, I was kind of hoping I could spend some time with my girlfriend..." he replied dryly.  
"Sirius, come on! This is my one shot with Lily! I can't ruin this! Please...you understand, don't you??"  
Sirius sighed. "Fine..."  
"I'll make it up to you, I promise..." Dominique said, looking at Sirius anxiously. "Yea, ok...don't worry about it...I'll just...I dunno, I'll find something to do..." he said as he stalked away.  
"He's still mad..." Dominique said to James.  
James only shrugged in return. "He's moody like that...don't worry, he'll get over it soon enough...hey, Lily's coming downstairs, come on let's go out in the hall and shrink you!" he said quickly, grabbing Dominique by the wrist and dragging her out in the hall.  
  
"Now remember...don't talk too loud..." James muttered quietly as he walked around outside looking for Lily. "Aside from the fact she'll hear, you'll hurt my ear..."  
"Got it..." Dominique said quietly, as she pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and laid it across the floor of James's ear. 'I thought he said he cleaned his ear...' she thought as she sat on top of her handkerchief. 'Ugh, it smells in here'  
"Lily!" she heard James shout. Dominique had to grab onto one of James's hairs to keep from falling out as he ran to greet her.  
"James! Hey!" Lily said brightly.  
  
"Smile and take her hand..." Dominique whispered, "ask where she wants to go first..."  
  
"Well, where would you like to go first?" James asked, smiling and taking Lily's hand. Lily in return blushed and smiled back. "Er...I dunno...how about Ginerva's Gifts, Gadgets and Galore....? I've got to do some Christmas shopping...still need to get presents for the girls..."  
"Sure!" James replied.  
  
"Tell her she looks beautiful..."  
  
"By the way Lily, you look absolutely beautiful..." James said.  
"Oh, thanks...this is Dominique's shirt actually...kinda stole it from her..."  
  
"What???" Dominique hissed.  
  
"What??" James shouted. "I mean...uh...you...you stole something?? Lily Evans?? A thief?? It's not very becoming of you!"  
Lily giggled.  
  
"Nice save..." Dominique whispered, rolling her eyes.  
  
"Ah well, she never would've missed it...she's got so many clothes as it is..." Lily said. "Alright, here we are..."  
Dominique heard a door opening, and people shuffling inside. After several minutes, Lily finally spoke again.  
"Hmm...a remembrall...I think I should get this for Kierra...I remember she said once that she needed one...well, I already got Alice's gift...I just need something for Dominique..."  
  
"Oooh...the handbag in the window, the handbag in the window!!" Dominique hissed.  
  
"Er...how about that handbag in the window?" James said. "I er...like the colors..." he added quickly. Lily grinned as she went to get the purse. "You're absolutely right! She would love it! You know," she said, turning to face James, "I'm surprised at you..."  
"Er, what do you mean?" James asked nervously, tugging at his shirt collar.  
"You seem to show good taste in fashion...and you're not at all bored shopping with me...I thought guys hated shopping...and you..well, I thought you were all about quidditch, and nothing else...sorry to have judged you like that..." she said, smiling shyly.  
"Oh, don't worry about it..." James said, smiling back. "Oy, Peter! Sirius! What's up mates?" James called at his friends who had just entered the shop.  
"Sirius, where's Dominique? I thought you two were hanging out?" Lily asked.  
"Oh...she had other plans..." Sirius said in a cold, loud voice, glancing at James. He in return, paused, as Dominique whispered something inside his head.  
"She wanted to buy Christmas presents, Padfoot..." James said, "and...I ran into her earlier...in the castle...and she, uh, told me to tell you that she'll meet you later on..."  
"Really? When?" Sirius asked with mild interest.  
"Er...3 o'clock..." "alright...where?"  
"Er...Hogshead..."  
"Alright...well, Wormtail and I will be moving along then..we'll see you guys later." Sirius said as he and Peter stalked off.  
  
"Ok, I'm just gonna pay for these and we can head out." Lily said as she headed to the cashier.  
"Sure thing...I'm just gonna look around a little while I wait..." James said as he headed to a table near the door.  
  
"So..how am I doing?" James whispered.  
"Pretty good...ok, it's nearly 12 so I think you all should head for lunch...you should go to Madam Pudifoot's...it's really romantic...it'll encourage the mood..and she likes that place.." Dominique said.  
"Ok sounds good"  
"Oh, and you're gonna be passing the Quidditch supplies shop...fight the urge, and just ignore it...do NOT go in..don't even look in the window, ok?" Dominique warned.  
"What? Why not?? Oh come on..."  
"No James! Anyway, she'll be impressed that you're ignoring Quidditch for her..."  
"Oh that's right...ok...I'll try..."  
"You'll try what??" cama a voice behind James. It was Lily, and she was holding her purchased in a red shopping bag. "Why were you mumbling to yourself?"  
"Oh...I...um...I was thinking about where we should go for lunch...I was thinking out loud...maybe we should try Madam Pudifoot's? Do you like that place?"  
"Oh, I love that place!" Lily exclaimed happily. "I've only been there once..."  
"Why not more often?" James asked.  
"Well..." Lily could feel herself blush. "It's a romantic sort of restaurant...you don't go there by yourself, or with friends...it's pretty much couples there...so I only went once, when I was on a date..."  
"With who??" James asked quickly.  
  
"Calm down, James...stay cool!!"  
  
"I mean...really? With who?" James asked again, more coolly. Lily smiled. "Oh...you know Fred Emerson, in Ravenclaw? With him...back when we were in 5th year..."  
"Oh yea...I remember him..." James said.  
"Remember him? You make it sound as if he's gone or something...he still goes here!" Lily replied.  
"Oh...no I mean, I remember when you went out with him..."  
"Oh, I see...well, here we are..."  
  
"Open the door for her..."  
  
"Thanks..." Lily said as James held the door open for her. Moments later, Dominique heard someone ushering them to a table.  
"Here is your table sir..." she heard a man's voice say.  
  
"pull out her chair for her..."  
  
"Thanks...James, you're being such a gentleman, you're kind of scaring me!" Lily said with a laugh.  
James laughed as well. "You're not the only one who's scared...well, let's go ahead and order..."  
At the mention of food, Dominique's stomach began to rumble.  
"Any chance you could stick some food in your ear, for me?" Dominique whispered. "I don't think so...' James mumbled.  
"What's that?" Lily asked, looking up from her menu.  
"Oh...I don't think I'm going to have the soup..." James said quickly.  
  
"Are you two ready to order?" Dominique heard the waiter ask.  
"Oh...I don't know...I'm torn between the chicken salad and the soup..." Lily said.  
  
"Tell the waiter that she'll have both..."  
  
"She'll have both, sir" James said, "and I'll have the linguine...." "James, I can't eat that much!" Lily exclaimed.  
  
"Tell her you'll share it..."  
  
"We can share it then...and could I have some water please?" James asked.  
"Me too" Lily said.  
"No problem..." The waiter replied, collecting the menus. Minutes later he reappeared with two glasses of cold water.  
  
Lily took a nervous sip of water and concentrated hard on her glass. She had never seen this side of James before. She had always known that underneath his immature, boyish act, he would be a nice guy...but not this nice...  
  
"Make some conversation!!" Dominique hissed. "compliment her!!"  
"Er...Lily...you...you've got beautiful eyes..."  
  
"Ooh..ok..." Dominique whispered excitedly, "they're greener than grass...in spring..."  
  
"They're greener than grass, in spring.." James repeated.  
  
"And...brighter than the moon..."  
  
"And they're brighter than the moon..." James murmured.  
"Oh...James..." Lily said quietly. Dominique did not have to see Lily's face to know that she was blushing furiously. Not knowing what to say to such flattery, Lily just took another sip of water.  
James made to do the same, but just as he reached for his glass, he felt a sneeze coming on. Not wanting to get anything on Lily, James turned his head away from the table and sneezed loudly. He immediately regretted it when he heard a small splash.  
  
James turned around as Lily shrieked and pointed at James's glass. Dominique swam afloat in James's glass, sputtering and looking up at Lily's terrified face.  
"Hey Lily!!" She said cheerily. "What's up??"  
"Dominique, what on earth are you doing here???" Lily exclaimed, pulling the tiny Dominique out of the glass of water and setting her on the table.  
"Uh...well...you see..."  
"This is all my fault.." James cut in. "I was nervous about our date...and asked for Dominique's help...to make it a perfect date...and so...I shrunk her and stuck her in my ear...so she could tell me what to say and how to act during the date...I'm sorry...I just wanted this to be perfect and I was afraid I'd mess it up..."  
  
James watched Lily nervously. Instead of slapping him and storming off as he had expected, she grinned. "Wow..." her grin turned into a laugh. "I can't believe you went to such lengths....just to please me...and I can't believe you..." she continued, turning to Dominique and laughing hysterically, "sitting in his ear? That's disgusting!"  
"Well, I wanted it to work out too!!" Dominique protested. "Listen, someone unshrink me so I can leave you two alone...clearly my work here is done..."  
"Right..." James said, pulling out his wand. With a wave, Dominique immediately regrew to her normal 5 feet 4 inches. (A/N: sorry you non-Americans out there, not my fault we're stuck on the English system!!) "Well, I better find Sirius...probably still fuming..." Dominique said. "You kids enjoy yourselves...and be nice to him, Lily!!" she added with a wink to her friend, who grinned in return.  
"Er, waiter, could I get another glass of water here, I think a bug got in mine..." Dominique could hear James say as she left the restaurant.  
  
Across the room, in a quiet little corner, Remus and Kierra watched the James/Lily/Dominique debacle with much amusement. Even ten minutes after Dominique had left and Lily and James were quietly enjoying their lunch date, Remus and Kierra couldn't help but laugh over it. "I can't believe she sat in his ear....that's disgusting..." Kierra laughed with a look of revulsion on her face.  
"I can't believe Lily didn't smack James...or let Dominique drown in the glass of water..." Remus laughed. "Well...that is pretty sweet though...stupid as their idea was...it was sweet nonetheless...trying to impress her..." Kierra replied.  
"Yea, that's true...perhaps that's what Lily reasoned..."  
"Well, I'm glad they're getting along now...poor James has been after her for ages..." Kierra said as she took a spoonful of her soup. "Yes, that's true..." Remus replied. After several moments of silence, he spoke up again. "I can't wait until new years eve...my parents are going to love you..."  
"Do you think so?" Kierra asked, looking up at Remus nervously. "Of course they will...how could anyone not love you?"  
Kierra smiled shyly. "This is going to be my first time meeting the parents of my boyfriend..."  
"You'll be fine, don't worry..." he said. "Well, as long as you're there...and since Sirius and Dominique will be there too...I guess I shouldn't be nearly as frightened...is there anything I should know about your parents? I mean...any pet peeves or something...subjects that I shouldn't touch on...?" Kierra asked.  
"Oh...well...let's see...my dad's pretty quiet and reserved...he's really intellectual though...so...I dunno...look at his library and see if anything interests you...strike up a conversation about that with him..my mum...hmm...oh, she absolutely hates swearing of any sort, so watch your mouth in front of her...I can't think of any other precautions for you..." he said. "But don't worry...just be yourself...you'll be fine..."  
"Maybe you can come visit me instead?" Kierra asked. "My parents won't scrutinize you at all! Anyway they already know I liked you, because Lily let it slip last summer when she came to visit me...they'll be so happy to know we've gotten together..."  
Remus laughed. "I'd love to meet them...really...but my parents would never forgive me if I left them during the holidays...they always want me to stay at home when we've got a break...I don't think they'd let me go...and don't worry, my parents won't scrutinize you! They're humans, Kierra...they're not mean monsters!!" he said with a grin. "Ok...sorry...I didn't mean that"-;  
"I know, I know, I'm just teasing you..." Remus replied. "Come on, let's hurry up, I want to get us ice cream from down the street before we have to head back to the castle..."  
  
Dominique walked into Zonko's joke shop, nearly slipping as she came in. As she passed by each aisle, students and shoppers looked at her questioningly. She was soaked to the bone, and tired, having looked over the entire village for Sirius. If only she were dry.  
'Oh that's right..I'm a witch...' Dominique thought stupidly, as she pulled out her wand. "Why are you all wet? And why aren't you on your date with James and Lily?" came a voice behind her. Dominique wheeled around to find Sirius, looking at her with the same confused look as everyone else in the shop.  
"Long story..." she said as she dried herself with a wave of her wand.  
"I've got time" he replied as he led her out of the store.  
"I'm tired, and hungry...first let's take care of that..."  
"Alright..." he said as he pulled her inside the Three Broomsticks and ordered her a butterbeer and sandwich. "So...what happened?"  
"Well," she said as she took a sip from her butterbeer, "James sneezed and I fell into his glass of water...so that's why I'm wet...that's also why I'm not on the date anymore...Lily saw"-;  
"Did she go ballistic?" Sirius asked. "No, quite the contrary...she actually thought it was funny..."  
"I see...so now you're free to spend the rest of your day with me?" he asked casually.  
"Yep...that is, if you want to anyway..." Dominique replied, glancing briefly at Sirius, knowing he was still annoyed that she ditched him.  
"Yea, I guess we could..."  
"You guess? Well...if you don't want to"-;  
"I never said I didn't want to..." Sirius replied curtly. "Well, if you're indifferent about it"-;  
"I never said I was"-;  
"You're implying it!" Dominique said, raising her voice slightly as she stood up and turned to leave.  
"Where are you going?" Sirius asked, tossing a few galleons on their now abandoned table and following Dominique out.  
"Back to the castle..."  
"Because..."  
"You're acting like an immature little asshole, Sirius"  
"Well, excuse me for wanting to spend some time with my girlfriend!!"  
"We spend plenty of time together!!! What's the big deal if I cancel plans with you once, to help some friends out? Are you going to act like such a baby every time I cancel plans with you??"  
"First of all, I am NOT acting like a baby...secondly, do you plan on cancelling plans with me every Hogsmead trip now??"  
"I never said that!! Quit putting words in my mouth!" Dominique exclaimed as they walked into the castle and headed to the great hall. "I'm just saying if I cancelled plans again in the future, are you gonna act all whiny about it??"  
"No! And I'm not whinning!! Don't accuse me of that!!"  
"Then quit shouting!!" Dominique retorted as they entered the great hall.  
"Don't take that tone with me!!"  
"I'll talk to you however I damn well please!" Dominique said. She and Sirius stopped suddenly when they realized there were some people behind them. They turned around, only to see Dumbledore walking with Professor McGonagall, both whom were watching them with surprise. Dumbledore narrowed his eyes slightly at the two, as if to give them a warning look, before he continued on with McGonagall.  
"As I was saying, Minerva," Dumbledore said, stalking past the bickering couple as if he had heard nothing, "The Chudley Canons have absolutely no chance at all making it to the cup..."  
  
Dominique turned back angrily to face Sirius, who looked somewhat softened now.  
"Look, I'm just mad because I had planned a nice romantic day for us, that's all..."  
"Oh..." Dominique felt a bit stupid now. "Why didn't you say something before?"  
"Well...James looked all nervous this morning...but excited that you were going to help him...I didn't want to spoil it for him..."  
"What did you have planned?" Dominique asked as they sat down at the Gryffindor table, which were only holding 1st and 2nd years at the moment. "Well...I got you a rose..." he said, pulling a long stemmed red rose from inside his cloak, and handing it to her. "Then I thought we'd take a nice long walk in the park...it's really pretty in the winter time...they decorate it with fairy lights...after that I wanted to take you to Godric's cafe...where we had our first date...I sent an owl to the manager yesterday, asking them to play 'so this is love',"-;  
"that was our first dance..."  
"and you were singing along with it..."  
"you remembered?"  
"of course...how could I not?"  
"Oh Sirius..." Dominique said quietly, "I'm sorry I messed this up..."  
"No, it's ok...we'll do it some other time. Sorry I blew up at you..."  
"No, I'm sorry"-;  
"Hey guys!!" James shouted as he entered the Great Hall arm in arm with Lily. They were both pink from glee, or perhaps from the cold, but either way, they looked rather happy. "I take it you guys had a good time then?" Sirius asked as they sat down.  
"Wonderful time, Padfoot old boy..." James replied cheerily. "I'm famished...wish this feast would begin!"  
Lily rolled her eyes, but smiled. "You just had a whole sundae 10 minutes ago!"  
"It was pretty small"-;  
"And you ate my soup too"-;  
"Correction, I finished it for you! You told me to!"  
Lily laughed. "I'm not blaming you...I'm just commenting on all the food you ate..and the surprise at seeing you have room for more!"  
"He's got an endless pit for a stomach, as I've said before..." came a voice behind them. "Moony!!" James grinned. "Did you guys have fun on your little date?" he asked, grinning at Remus and Kierra.  
"Oh yes, quite. Especially watching you and Lily on your date...and seeing Dominique flying out of your ear..." he said as he and Kierra fell into laughter.  
"Oh shut up!!" Dominique exclaimed, though she couldn't help but smile as well. "You were at Madam Pudifoot's too? Why didn't you talk to us then?" Lily asked, glancing at Kierra.  
"Oh, we didn't want to interrupt you guys...especially when you two were swapping spit..." Kierra replied.  
At this, James and Lily turned red, while the others broke into laughter.  
"Never would've thought I'd live to see the day..." Sirius said. "I get to be best man at the wedding, I dibs it!"  
Lily cleared her throat as food materialized on their plates. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves now..." she said sternly, as they began to eat.  
  
"Hey, Dominique, thanks for helping me out." James said during dinner. "Oh, I hardly helped...I was there for like an hour..."  
"Yes, but still, you gave me...I dunno, confidence I guess..."  
"As if you ever lacked that..."  
James chuckled. "Well, I never had much confidence around Lily," he said, throwing a glance at his new girlfriend, who was chatting with Kierra. "And by the time you left, I had a good idea of how to act around her...and now I'm completely comfortable with being a nice guy...gentleman sort of person..."  
Dominique laughed. "But you already were a nice guy, gentleman sort of person..."  
James grinned. "If I was, I did a good job at hiding it...anyway, thanks again..."  
"No problem..."  
"If there's anything you ever need from me...any way I can repay you...just name it."  
Dominique paused for a moment and glanced at Sirius, who was talking to Remus about his plans to visit him over winter break. "Actually...there is...I hear you have an invisibility cloak..."  
"Where'd you hear that?" James asked quietly.  
"No need to hide it, they all know about it," Dominique said, indicating at Lily and Alice. "When Remus transformed...that whole incident with Kierra...she saw you guys with the cloak...she told us about it later..."  
"Oh...ok...what about it?"  
"Well...I was wondering, if maybe I could borrow it tonight?"  
"Er...what for? If you don't mind me asking..."  
"Well...it turns out that Sirius had all these great plans for us today, and he was upset that I cancelled on him...to go with you and Lily...so I wanted to make it up to him somehow..."  
"So what do you need the cloak for?" he asked, looking at her suspiciously.  
Dominique rolled her eyes. "I just wanted it so we could sneak out...good gosh, I wasn't planning on shagging him in it, if that's what you're worried about'  
James sighed. "Oh ok...that's fine then. You can use it."  
"Excellent...Can I get it from you after dinner?"  
"Sure."  
'Thanks James, you're the best!" she said with a smile, as James blushed.  
  
Sirius sat with James, Peter and Remus in the Gryffindor common room, watching James and Remus play a game of chess. Clever of a wizard as James was, Remus was simply superb at chess. They were now on their fourth round. Starting off as just one game, it went to best of three games, to best of seven; as James kept losing, and insisted to Lily that he could beat Remus. Sirius could not help but be amused at the scene. James, determined to win another game, had beads of sweat forming around his face, and his eyes widened with anxiety at every move Remus made. The latter on the other hand, looked calm, almost serene, as he made each of his moves. Kierra, his personal cheerleader, also watched avidly, and seemed very much to appreciate Remus's genius.  
"You are so sexy when you play..." she murmured.  
"You do know you said that out loud, Kierra?" Lily asked, grinning.  
"It's true though!!" Kierra protested.  
"that's fine, just keep it to yourself though!" Alice chimed in, who was also watching the chess game. "Geez, you think anyone wants to know about your fetishes, aside from Remus?"  
To this, Remus smiled, trying to supress a laugh. "I won't even comment," he muttered, "but we're gonna have to have a little chat, Kierra, that's all I'm going to say..."  
  
"Meet me outside the portrait hole, now..." a whisper came from behind Sirius. He turned around, but no one was there. It sounded like Dominique's voice. He looked towards the door, and to his surprise, it quietly opened, and then closed, as if on its own accord. Sirius slowly got up and made to follow, when suddenly Peter stopped him.  
"Where are you going, Padfoot?" Peter asked.  
"Eh...I'm fancying a little walk..." he replied, as he continued walkking.  
"But it's after hours!"  
"So? It's not like anyone'll catch me..." he replied coolly, as he left the common room. Just as he stepped out into the hallway, he felt someone grab him around the waist.  
"Caught ya..." Sirius wheeled around and found Dominique, grinning at him, with James's invisibility cloak in her arm.  
"He let you borrow it?"  
"Yea...he owed me one after all...anyway, come on, I've got plans for us..." she said, pulling the cloak over themselves. "Er, where are we going? And...what's with the blanket?" he asked, pointing to the folded blanket tucked away in Dominique's cloak. "Well...I felt bad about today...I just wanted to make it up to you...we're going outside..."  
"You know how cold it is at night time around here?"  
"We'll light a fire..."  
"Ok..." and with that, Sirius and Dominique walked in silence the rest of the way. When they finally got outside, they pulled the cloak off and rested it on the cold ground. "So...what are we doing here?" Sirius finally asked. Dominique turned around and whistled, beckoning several short creatures....house elves. There were three of them, and they each hand their arms full. As Dominique spread the blanket on the ground, the house elves, arranged small platters of food on it. Minutes later, another house elf came scurrying outside, with several long candles in hand. "A thousand apologies for being late, ma'am," he said to Dominique, as he set the candles in the middle of the blanket and lit them. "That's alright..and thank you very much, all of you." Dominique replied, smiling at the elves.  
"Call us if you need anything else," a female house elf said, bowing.  
"Of course. Thanks again, you all can go now." Dominique replied. As the elves left, Sirius gaped at Dominique, who smiled in return. "Call it a midnight candlelight...only I suppose it's an hour early..." she said as she glanced at her watch. "No matter...well, sit down!" she said. "Oh wait...the ground is freezing...hold on.." she pulled out her wand and muttered a charm, pointing her wand at the earth below them. Immediately the ground all around them began to warm up. "There," she said, tucking her wand away, "that should last a few hours..."  
"You didn't have to do this..." Sirius said as he sat down with Dominique.  
"Well, I wanted to..." she replied.  
"You're about the best girlfriend a guy could ever ask for, you know that?" he said after a while, as he poured himself some hot chocolate. "Giving a guy food...it's nearly as good as making love to him..."  
Dominique grinned. "I have something else for you..." she said, getting up. "I had planned for us to do this after we ate...but I figured we should go for it now, before the coldness reached our on, get up!" she said, pulling Sirius up. "Wow, all these surprises...I feel so special..." he said with a sly smile. "I don't mean to excite your anticipations...it's not that great..." she said as she took his hands and placed them around her waist, and placing her own around his neck. As she did so she began to hum a tune that was all too familiar to Sirius, who smiled at hearing it.  
"So this is love..." she sung quietly, "So this...is what makes life divine.  
"My heart has wings...mmm...and I can fly.  
I'll touch every star in the sky...." They danced around unhurriedly to the slow rhythm.  
"so this is the miracle that I've been dreaming of.  
So this is love..."  
(A/N: It's from Cinderella, the old disney one...lol I'm such a dork...)  
  
Sirius smiled with content as Dominique finished singing. "You remembered" he said.  
"No, you did. You reminded me..." she replied. "Same difference..." he answered, no longer remembering, nor caring about what they were discussing. He pulled her back to the ground, which was still warm, and pulled her onto his lap to cradle her. Dominique however was glancing up at the sky. "Beautiful…" she murmured, pointing at the night sky, which was glimmering with stars. Dominique pulled herself off of Sirius's lap and lay down on the earth, pulling Sirius down, nudging him to do the same. "When I was little," she said quietly, still staring at the sky, "I'd go camping with Remus's family sometimes…his mum was really into it and so they went a lot…anyway, every time I went with them, at night, they'd just lay there in the dark, staring at the sky, watching the stars…his dad's really into astronomy you know…he'd show us all the constellations…We'd lay there for hours…" "Not surprised," Sirius replied, gazing at the endless darkness above them, "It's absolutely beautiful out here…I think I could lay here for hours too…" "You see those set of stars up there?" Dominique asked, pointing up slightly south of where they lay. "Er, which ones exactly?" Sirius asked, not sure which of the millions of stars he was supposed to be focusing on.  
"These…" Dominqiue said, wrapping her hand over his, she traced several stars out in the sky. "Look what shape it makes…" "Looks kind of like a dog…" "Yea…I remember Mr. Lupin telling us that was called Sirius…" "Really?" "Yea…isn't that weird…I mean, not that you bear the name of a star…but the fact that it's a dog…and when you're an animagus you turn into a dog…anyway…I remembered that when I first met you…when you told me your name was Sirius…I really like your name…it sounds almost regal…"  
  
Sirius didn't reply at first. Regality was exactly why he bore that name. It sounded that way to his mum anyway, so she gave him the name. After all, they were Blacks, they were royalty since they were pureblood, hence, they all had to sound royal.  
"Thanks…" he said finally.  
Dominique pulled herself up slightly to look at him. "Are you ok?" she asked. "Huh? Yea…I'm fine…" "You don't sound like it…what's wrong?" "Well…it's just that…my mum had the same idea as you"— "Oh, Sirius! I didn't mean to sound like you mum"— "No it's ok…I know you didn't…it's not your fault…it's just who I am…I'm a Black, I've got a royal-sounding, Black name…I've just got to get used to it…" he said, putting a venomous emphasis on the word 'Black'.  
"Sirius," Dominique said, sitting up now, "who cares if your last name is Black? That doesn't mean anything! No one cares about who your family is! Anyone who does, isn't worth your time anyway…You don't even associate yourself with them…" "Listen, can we just not talk about this anymore?" Sirius said suddenly, as he pulled himself up as well. "I'm sorry…I just…hate thinking about my family, let alone talking about it…nothing personal against you…it's just my problem…They've made my life hell, you know, seventeen years….took me that long to gather enough sense to run away…" he muttered.  
"I understand…" "No you don't," he said at once, as he stood up. "It's complicated…my family, my feelings, everything, I don't want to get into it…" "Ok…if you don't want to you don't have to…" Sirius sighed and looked at Dominique, who looked very pale now, either from his sudden outburst or from the cold, or perhaps both. "I'm sorry," he said in a softer voice. "I didn't mean"— "It's ok," Dominique said, smiling slightly at him, putting her hands in his own. "I know how it is to be confused…" Sirius paused for a moment to consider what she said, then it hit him, seemingly like a punch in the stomach. "I forgot that we're kind of on the same boat…" "Well…not entirely…but, we're in the same sea at least…" She replied, as she picked up James's invisibility cloak. "Come on, everyone's leaving tomorrow for holiday, we need to wake up early to say goodbye to them…" "Right…" Sirius said, as he helped Dominique wrap the cloak around themselves while the walked back to the castle. 


	22. Chapter 22: Queen Kierra

Chapter 22: Queen Kierra

When Dominique arrived at the Great Hall the following morning, there seemed to be much more excitement and buzz going around than normal... 'of course,' Dominique thought gloomily, 'everyone's leaving..' Just as Dominique took her seat at the Gryffindor table, she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Remus, smiling at her.

"Hey...Just wanted to say bye" he said, "even though I'll be seeing you in a few days...are you sure you and Sirius are going to be o.k. here? You know you're more than welcome to come to my house…"

Dominique smiled at the offer. "Thanks, but I've got Dumbledore here too…so, not to worry, I'll have plenty of company…and I daresay Sirius and I will be finding things to do…"

Remus smiled. "Alright…if you insist on staying…Well, I'd better be off now. By the way, have you seen Kierra?"

"Er, she's still packing actually…" Dominique said with a grin. Kierra was the queen of procrastination. She actually hadn't even started packing until this morning…

"What??" Remus exclaimed, dropping the handle of his trunk. "The carriages are already loading! She'd better hurry up!" Just then, Kierra came bursting through the door, luggage in hand.

"Made it!!" She exclaimed. Dominique grabbed a piece of fruit off the table for Kierra's breakfast as she and Remus ran to join her.

"About time too!" Remus said, "come on, we need to go"—

"and good morning to you too…" Kierra replied, rolling her eyes at Remus. "I'm hungry"—

"Here"—Dominique said, shoving a peach in Kierra's mouth. "Now come on, I'll walk you guys outside." Kierra pulled the fruit out of mouth and shuddered.

"Ugh, I don't like"—

"We'll get you something off the trolley when we're on the train, but right now we need to move!" Remus said, taking Kierra's hand and rushing her outside.

Once outside, they spotted Peter, Alice and Frank waving at them from a carriage.

"What took you so long?" Alice asked. "We're about ready to leave!"

"Packing…" Kierra grumbled as she climbed into the carriage.

"Where's James and Lily?" Remus asked as he climbed in.

"Doing their headship duties…" Peter explained, pointing over to the couple, who were ushering around nervous little first years. "Anyway, they'll be getting their own private carriage…"

"Oh, there comes Sirius!" Remus exclaimed, pointing to a guy who came running outside.

"Sorry, I overslept!" Sirius breathed. Dominique and Sirius quickly said their goodbyes with hugs and handshakes, and quickly retreated to find Lily and James in their personal carriage.

"Thought you'd let us go without saying goodbye?" James asked as they met Sirius and Dominique.

"Make sure you take lots of pictures when you're in Athens!" Dominique said as she hugged Lily.

"I'll be sure to" Lily replied with a grin.

"I want a hug too!" whined James. Dominique raised and eyebrow at James, but grinned as she reached over to give James a hug, when he suddenly moved away from her. "Not you!! I meant Lily!!" he exclaimed.

Lily laughed, rolling her eyes. "Oh geez Potter…" Dominique however, frowned at James and she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I was just kidding!" he exclaimed as he pulled Dominique into a tight hug.

"James, you're smothering me!!!" Dominique said in a muffled laugh as she tried to pull away from him.

"Ok, off my woman…" Sirius said with a smile, pulling Dominique away from James. Just then, the carriages started to move.

"You guys have a good holiday!!" Sirius called after them as he and Dominique waved goodbye to them.

"You too!! And you kids better be good while we're gone!" James called back.

Just then, from a distant carriage, Dominique heard Kierra's voice.

"Oh no!!!" She wailed, "I forgot to pack my toothbrush!!"

Dominique grinned, and cupped her hands around her mouth and called out to Kierra.  
"Don't worry!! I'll send it to you via owl!!"

Kierra looked over to Dominique and grinned. "Thanks D!!!" she shouted, as she, Remus, Alice, Frank and Peter waved them goodbye.

Dominique couldn't help but smile when she saw Remus rolling his eyes at Kierra, and then putting an arm around her as she settled down and curled up against him. "She is so cute.." Dominique giggled as she and Sirius turned to go back to the castle.

"You know," Sirius began, as they got to the castle entrance, "now that the kids are gone, we're gonna have the entire Gryffindor common room to ourselves! We can catch up…maybe in my room…"

Dominique laughed. "I didn't know we were behind…"

Sirius studied himself in the mirror. Shirt tucked…hair combed…clothes ironed…Was he missing anything? Sirius thought as he absentmindedly reached for his bottle of cologne again and sprayed himself. Sirius ran his fingers nervously through his hair as he stared at himself. 'It's only dinner with Dominique...' he told himself, 'and Dumbledore…' But he already knew Dumbledore fairly well. Or rather, Dumbledore knew him fairly well…Dumbledore had been there when he when he was having problems with his family…Dumbledore was the only man who had the power to send him back to his home when he ran away over the summer, but instead he turned the other cheek and let him stay at James's house.

So why was he so nervous? He was the same Dumbledore…only now, he was Dominique's great-uncle. He was her family…Sirius let out a deep sigh as he headed out of the dormitory. As he came into the common room, he found Dominique sitting by the fireplace, waiting for him.

She looked up when she saw him and she quickly got up.

"Wow…you look…" she stopped and sniffed the air. "like you've swam in a river of cologne…" she giggled.

"Ah shit, am I wearing too much??" Sirius swore under his breath as he smelled himself. "I didn't realize I put so much on…"

"It's alright…maybe it'll go away on our way to the great hall..." she said with a laugh.

"I doubt it…" Sirius said as he pulled out his wand and muttered a spell to fan off the cologne. "Better?" he asked.

"Yea"

"Alright, let's go!" he said, opening the portrait hole door for Dominique.

Dominique and Sirius walked down the empty halls in silence for several minutes. Finally Dominique spoke up.

"I take it not many people stay here over the holidays?"

"I dunno…I guess not…this is my first time staying here for Christmas actually…well, we'll find out when we get to the hall…" Sirius only hoped there were at least a few more students staying, so it wouldn't be just him, Dominique and the headmaster.

As they entered the great hall, Sirius sighed with relief, as he saw three more students in the great hall, along with professor Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hagrid.

"Excellent.." he said.

"What's excellent?" Dominique asked, as she waved to Dumbledore.

"Oh! Er…that we've got all these people here…it's always nice to have lots of people for dinner…specially for the holidays…"

"Oh yes, that's true…er, do you know any of the students?"

"Well, I know those two girls are in ravenclaw, and that boy's in hufflepuff…I don't know their names though…"

"Aww…that boy's so adorable…he looks like a first year!" Dominique said, eyeing the little boy who looked around the room timidly.

"Ah, Dominique, Sirius! So glad that you've joined us!" Dumbledore said as he took a seat at the table. "Well, I think that's everyone?" he asked, turning to McGonagall, who nodded in return. "well then, tuck in everyone!" he said as food materialized in front of them.

The following half hour passed with little incident. Professor Dumbledore mostly talked with Professor McGonagall and Hagrid, and only occasionally talked to the other students, ("Sirius, Mr. Filch and I were thinking of naming one of the detention dungeons after you and Mr. Potter, as a tribute to your memories when you all leave" Dumbledore said). The two ravenclaw girls seemed to be friends, as they chatted animatedly with each other. The only person who seemed quiet was the small hufflepuff boy. Dominique had seemed to notice this and tried conversing with him throughout the dinner.

"So what's your name?" she asked, as she passed him salad.

"Me?" he asked in surprise. "Er…John…Ferrars…"

Dominique grinned. "I'm Dominique. You're in hufflepuff, aren't you?"

John nodded, looking at Dominique timidly, who in return, couldn't help but broaden her smile, as she turned to Sirius. "What a little cutie pie!" she exclaimed quietly.

John, who had heard, turned pink and quickly busied himself with his dinner.

Sirius, who had noticed this, smiled slightly.

Several courses later, the table slowly began to empty, until it was down to Dumbledore, Sirius, and Dominique. Sirius of course, had wanted to go, but Dominique was still talking to Dumbledore…discussing chamber music, and he felt it would be rude if he left without Dominique.

"Anyway," Dominique continued, "Corelli is absolutely marvelous…I know he's a muggle composer and all, but still"—

"Ah…" Dumbledore said with a sigh. "His music is too depressing for my taste…"

"Isn't chamber music depressing by definition?" Sirius interjected, without having realized that he had interrupted.

Dumbledore and Dominique turned to Sirius. 'Wonder if I've offended them…' Sirius thought nervously. Slowly though, Dumbledore showed a small smile. "Yes, and no…some is, some isn't…"

Sirius shrugged. "Ah well…I'm not much of a music person…"

Dumbledore's smile broadened. "Then how, may I ask, do you put up with my niece? When she's so obsessed with music? And all of those muggle composers…"

"hey, I don't talk about it that much!" Dominique said.

Sirius grinned. "I don't mind listening to her lectures, as long as it's her that's talking," he said, turning to Dominique, "anything she says is worth listening to."

Dominique smiled and blushed, but did not say anything, while Dumbledore looked at the couple approvingly.  
"Well," Dumbledore said after a moment, as he stood up. "I'm glad to know that you two are tolerating each other. Now, I just wanted to let you know that I won't be here tomorrow, I've got an urgent owl from the ministry, so I've got to tend to that immediately. If you need anything, Professor McGonagall will be here."

"Alright…ooh wait," Dominique, said, "New years eve, Remus invited us to his house…can we floo over to his place from here?"

Dumbledore paused for a moment as if to consider the matter. "Yes," he said finally, "I'll be back by then, so stop by at my office and you can floo from the fireplace there, so I can see you off. And you'll be spending the remainder of the holiday there?"

"Yes" Sirius and Dominique said together.

"Very well. And I expect that you'll all be coming on the train together on your way back here?"

"Yes sir" Sirius replied.

"Alright. Well, I need to go to the ministry now, I'll probably be back in time for dinner tomorrow. So, until then, you two have a good Christmas." Dumbledore said, placing his right hand on Dominique's head, looking at her affectionately. He smiled at her, and then turned to Sirius and extended his hand out to him. Sirius looked at him with slight shock, but he quickly recovered as he took his hand and shook it. Dumbledore smiled at the two and nodded slightly as he turned to go back to his office.

When Dumbledore was out of sight, Dominique turned to Sirius, grinning at him.

"He shook your hand! You know what that means?"

"Er"—

"He likes you!!"

Sirius grinned. "He approves of me?"

"Yea, I think so!" Dominique said as wrapped her arms around Sirius. "Not that I'm surprised or anything…" she added quickly.

"Uh huh, sure…" Sirius replied with a smile. "Come on, it's getting late…we need to get to the owlry to send our gifts…and then, we're going back to our common room, and you're gonna sing carols to me…"

"Am I?" Dominique asked with a laugh.

"Yes…and then we'll fall asleep at the couch, and wake up on Christmas day…"

"Sounds like a plan to me…" Dominique said as they headed back to the common room to wrap presents.

Kierra stirred in her bed. She could feel the rays of sunlight pouring through her bedroom window. "mmm…Christmas morning…" she murmured as she rolled over onto her side. "AAAHH!!!!"

Kierra quickly sat up in her bed, only to find a tall young man with brown hair and brown eyes, standing over her with a pillow in hand, and grinning at her.

"Harvey, you ass!!" Kierra shouted as she rubbed her eyes.

"And merry Christmas to you too!" Harvey replied, laughing.

"ugh…yea yea, merry Christmas…"

"You don't sound very merry…"

"Am I ever merry in the morning?"

"Hmm good point…well, that sucks for you, mom and dad are already up and getting breakfast ready, so get up!" Harvey replied as he pulled Kierra's comforters off of her, causing her to groan.

"Who invented big brothers anyway?" Kierra asked as she rolled out of bed.

"Same guy who invented little sisters, I bet…let's get him, the two of us, eh?" Harvey asked, patting Kierra on the head, crumbling up her hair.

"I don't get how Janine can stand you…"

"Well, little sis…seeing as how she's my wife, I'm nicer to her…"

"I bet you are"—

"Kerry!!!!" Just as Kierra came out of her bedroom, she was jumped by her sister-in-law, Janine. "Merry Christmas sweety!!" she squealed.

"You too!" Kierra giggled as she hugged Janine.

"Geez, I tell her merry Christmas and she calls me an ass!" Harvey exclaimed sarcastically as he stalked past the girls.

"All in good humor, Harvey!" Kierra said with a grin, as she and Janine followed him down the stairs to the living room.

"Ah, morning dear!" Mrs. Nakofsky said, coming out of the kitchen.

"Presents!!"

"Kierra! Breakfast first!"

"Aw, muuuumm"—

"Don't mum me"—

"Hey look!" Harvey reached under the tree and picked up an elegantly wrapped box. "This one's from Kierra's new boyfriend! Remus Lupin…wonder how long this guy will last…"

"oooh mum please, I wanna see what he got me!" Kierra said excitedly as she ran into the living room.

Mrs. Nakofsky sighed and turned her head towards the kitchen door to beckon her husband. "Jack! You're daughter's ripping apart her presents as I speak! We'll eat breakfast after the gift opening, ok?"

Just then Mr. Nakofsky came out of the kitchen. "I told you she'd go wild if she knew she got a present from that Lupin boy…he's the same one she had a crush on last year, isn't he?"

"Yep!" Harvey answered for Kierra, who was reading Remus's card. "Wonder how she got him to go out with her…probably snuck some love potion in his pumpkin juice or something…hey what'd he get you?" he asked, turning to Kierra, who had just opened the box Remus had given her.

"A chess set…" Kierra said, with a grin, as she pulled the wizard's chess set out of its box.

"A chess set??" Harvey exclaimed as he peered over her shoulder, "wow, that's a nice set…all marble…wait, you don't even know how to play! Here, I'll keep it if you want"—

"I know how to play!" Kierra protested as she held the set away from her brother.

"Oh yea? What piece is that?" he asked, pointing to a random white piece.

"Er…I know…that's the uh…the cardinal?"

The whole family burst into laughter.

"Bishop, dear…" Mr. Nakofsky said.

"Oh! That's what I meant"—

"Why on earth would he give you a chess set"—

Kierra grinned as she remembered the chess match between Remus and James the night before they left Hogwarts.

"I think they've got some inside joke…the smile says it all…" Mrs. Nakofsky said.

"Really?" Janine asked, raising an eyebrow as Kierra. "So, I bet this whole chess thing is some sort of double talk they have…Is it like, when you say you're playing chess, you really mean you're gonna"—

"No!!" Kierra exclaimed, turning pink, but still smiling broadly.

"Then??"

"Nothing!!"

"Come on!"

"He's really good at chess…so maybe he just got this for me so I can practice…to play against him later…"

Janine snorted. "Yea, right…if chess is a simile for"—

"Hey, big brother's still here! Don't wanna hear it!!" Harvey shouted.

"Which reminds me," Mrs. Nakofsky said, "Kierra, remind me to have a talk with you before you go to Remus's house"—

Kierra rolled her eyes. "Mum, I really don't wanna know about the birds and the bees…"

"Honey!"

"What, that's what you wanted to talk about, right? Oh come off it mum, everything's gonna be fine…anywhos, his parents will be there, not to mention Sirius and Dominique…so we're never gonna be alone, don't worry…" she said with exasperation.

"Oh alright…" Mrs. Nakofsky said with a sigh. "Well, you've opened your present from your dearly beloved…now let's go eat breakfast and then we can open the rest of the presents.."

"ok!" Kierra said as she replaced the chess set on the coffee table.

"Hey there's something on the queen…" Harvey said, picking up the white queen piece. "woah…"

"What??" Kierra asked, grabbing the queen from Harvey. "Woaaah…."

Inscribed on the queen piece, with elegant cursive handwriting, was "Queen Kierra"

"That's so sweet!!" Janine exclaimed as she peered over Kierra's shoulder.

Kierra sighed, but was taken out of her utopia by her brother, who sniggered. "This Remus kid is something else…spending a fortune on an idiot like you…"

On the day of New Years Eve, Dominique and Sirius walked excitedly towards Dumbledore's office.  
"Gosh, I can't wait to see his parents! You know how long it's been?" Dominique said excitedly.

"I think it was eleven years, this morning…" Sirius said with a smile.

"Oh..sorry, I keep talking about it, don't I?" Dominique said, smiling sheepishly. Sirius laughed. "Yes, but that's alright…eleven years is a long time…I see them pretty regularly in the summer…we all go to each other's houses all the time over the summer…well, except mine of course, God knows, I'd never want any of my friends to meet my parents…" Sirius said with a shudder.

Dominique smiled slightly. "It's alright…I had the same thing..I'd never introduce anyone to my family…well, except that one boyfriend I had in my 5th year…he had a yacht…so I thought that'd make my parents happy…"

"What's a yacht?"

"It's a fancy sort of boat…muggles like to own them, as a sort of..mark of wealth…"

"Really…"

"Yea…well, not everyone owns a yacht for that reason…but quite a few do…"

"so this bloke was muggle?"

"Yea…I met him over the summer…at my mum's country club…and please don't make me explain what those are…"

Sirius grinned. "Ok, I won't…so did your parents like the kid?"

"Yea, they loved him…"

"Did you?"

"Am I still with him?"

Sirius laughed. "Why'd you end up dumping him?"

"He was just so incredibly dull…of course…that wasn't good enough reason to dump him for my parents…they grounded me for a week…"

"You're kidding…"

"Nope! See, my parents were kind of friends with his parents, and so when I dumped him, it sort of severed ties between our families. Big loss…" Dominique said sarcastically.  
"Ah…do you know Dumbledore's password?" Sirius asked, as they reached the entrance to his office.

"Oh right…pumpkin pasty…"

"Ah…afternoon…Are you two all ready?" Dumbledore asked as they stepped into his office.

"Yes, sir" Dominique and Sirius said together.

"Well, I sent an owl to the Lupin family yesterday, requesting them to allow you two to arrive via portkey, instead of by floo…I'm expecting an important visit from the minister via floo, and I don't want the network getting mixed up if you're all traveling at once. So," Dumbledore reached from his shelf a long-stemmed silver goblet. "hold onto this. And on my count, it should transport you to the Lupins' residence….ready?"

Sirius and Dominique nodded as they each took hold of the goblet.

"Three, two…one..and off you go"—

Dumbledore's voice faded away as the office around them disappeared. Seconds later, a sunny, warm living room appeared in front of them.

Dominique and Sirius looked around. At first, the house seemed completely empty, as it was silent. Then suddenly…

"Mrs. Lupin!!!"

Sirius wheeled around, to see Dominique running up to a tall woman with curly brown hair, who bore a forest green apron over her crème colored dress, and hugging her.

"Oh, Dominique!!" Mrs. Lupin exclaimed, as she hugged her, "Look how you've grown! Last time I saw you, you were about three feet tall!! Oh, and look how beautiful you've become! Remus wasn't exaggerating in his letters to us then, was he?"

"Someone mention my name?"

Everyone turned around to see Remus coming down the stairs. "I thought I heard mum screaming…" he said with a grin. "Glad you made it here safely…" he said, nodding to Dominique, and then to Sirius. Mrs. Lupin turned around, remembering that Sirius too, had just come in.

"Oh, Sirius!! Goodness, I'm sorry!! It was just so shocking to see Dominique"—

"It's ok, Mrs. Lupin!" Sirius said with a grin, accepting a hug from her. "You see enough of me in the summer anyway, it's perfectly alright."

Mrs. Lupin smiled. "Make yourselves comfortable kids, I just need to get back to the kitchen and finish lunch. It'll be ready in a few minutes!"

"Do you need any help mum?" Remus asked.

"No, don't worry about it sweety, you just sit with your friends..." Mrs. Lupin replied as she disappeared into the kitchen.

"Aw, always a good boy…helping his mummy…" Sirius laughed.

Remus grinned. "I try…"

"Er, Remus, where's the bathroom? I need to freshen up"

"Down the hall, first door on your right…" Remus answered.

"Great, thanks…" Dominique said, leaving the living room.

"So…I didn't know you fancied Dominique…" Sirius said when he heard the bathroom door shut.

"What??" Remus said, sitting up quickly.

"Your mum said you wrote in your letters to her that Dominique was beautiful"—

"Sirius! That was in the beginning of the year, when I first saw her after all those years! I wrote my parents telling them I met Dominique, and how she'd grown…and stopped wearing pigtails…and that she's become very beautiful…I meant it as an…observation of how she's changed…not as…'oh, she's beautiful, I'm in love with her'…" Remus said, assuring himself that it wasn't a lie. After all, he wasn't exactly in love with her…just…slightly attracted, that's all…

"Oh…ok…alright, that's fine…cause I was about to say…you've got Kierra"—

Remus smiled. "and I couldn't be happier with anyone else…don't worry…no one's after your girlfriend…I mean, who would wanna answer to you?"

"Very true…" Sirius replied with a grin. "Oy!!" Sirius and Remus both backed away from the fireplace as an explosion of fire, smoke, and soot shot through it, followed by a loud, crashing sound of glass.

"Oh my!!" Dominique had just walked into the living room, which was now covered with soot, "What happened?"

Mrs. Lupin came running out of the kitchen. "What happened??" she exclaimed, waving her arms around in the air to clear the smoke. Just as she took another step forward, a loud crunching noise came from under her crème colored heels. "Oh!! My grandmother's vase!!"

As the smoke finally cleared up, Mrs. Lupin saw a girl with brown hair, struggling to pull her trunk upright, but she stopped when the entire room went silent.

"uh…" Kierra smiled nervously. "you must be Mrs. Lupin!"

Mrs. Lupin nodded.

Kierra looked down at the floor that surrounded Mrs. Lupin and found the broken glass. "And that…must have been really expensive…"

Mrs. Lupin nodded again.

'Maybe I'll have better luck with Mr. Lupin…' Kierra thought miserably…


	23. Chapter 23: Meet the Parents

A/N: sorry it took so long to post…still kind of internet deprived L and also sorry if this chapter seems a bit…choppy…I wrote it over a course of several days b/c I was too busy to write it in one sitting. (which I prefer…I write much better that way!) but I hope u like it anyway; Ive got more interesting plans for ch. 24…(er, I think so anyway…) warning though-this one's a bit raunchy…then again, I've written worse… ;) (hehe wait till 24!)

Chapter 23: Meet the Parents

Remus eyed his mother nervously. Finally, unable to stand the intense silence any longer, Remus helped Kierra pull her trunk upright. "Well mum…this is Kierra…" he said, pushing Kierra slightly forward towards his mother. Kierra glanced back at Remus quickly, but then turned her attention to Mrs. Lupin.

"Pleasure to meet you dear." Mrs. Lupin said with a small smile, as she extended her hand to Kierra.

"Oh, pleasure's all mine"—Kierra had extended her hand out as well, but as she glanced down at it, she saw it was covered with soot. She quickly withdrew her hands and wiped them on her pants, as she smiled nervously at Mrs. Lupin, who in response, glanced questioningly at Remus.

"Well, I left the stove on, so I need to head back to the kitchen…lunch will be ready in a minute…" Mrs. Lupin said as she turned to leave, stopping in front of the broken vase. She sighed, but pulled out her wand and waved it. "Reparo…" and instantly the antique vase became whole again. Mrs. Lupin picked the vase up and replaced it on the side table before heading back to the kitchen.

"Well…that didn't go too bad…" Sirius said when Mrs. Lupin disappeared.

Kierra only looked at Remus nervously, who smiled warmly and put an arm around her.

"Don't worry about it," he replied, "come on, let me show you all to your rooms, then we'll have lunch." Remus said, helping Kierra with her trunk.

"Ah, Mrs. Lupin…you've outdone yourself, as always…" Sirius remarked as he and his friends helped themselves to lunch.

Mrs. Lupin smiled. "Oh, it was nothing, really…so, how did your Christmas go? Remus told me that you and Dominique stayed at Hogwarts…"

"Oh yea…it was great," Sirius replied.

"A bit quiet…I mean with hardly anyone there in the castle…but we had a good time." Dominique chimed in.

"And you, dear?" Mrs. Lupin asked, turning to Kierra, "Did you do anything special over the holidays?"

"Nothing in particular," Kierra replied, "just my brother and his wife came home from Scotland to be with us, so that was nice…oh and of course, coming here to see you all…" Kierra added with a grin towards Remus.

Mrs. Lupin nodded slightly, apparently not seeming too interested. After a few moment's silence she began again. "Kierra, I was wondering what your parents do…your surname is Nakofsky, isn't it? It sounds so familiar…"

"Oh…well…my mum is a healer at St. Mungo's…" Kierra replied, "and my dad…he's a reporter for the Daily Prophet"—

"Wait…Nakofsky…Jack Nakofsky?? He writes the Quidditch Column…"

"Er…yes"—

"Woah, you never told us your dad wrote for the Prophet!" Sirius exclaimed.

Kierra rolled her eyes. "You never asked…"

"He doesn't seem to think very highly of Puddlemere United…." Mrs. Lupin said.

Remus smiled at Kierra. "My parents are huge fans of Puddlemere…"

Kierra blushed slightly. "Oh…yea, sorry…my dad hates them…so he tends to write with that little bias…"

"And pray tell, what team does he go for?" asked Mrs. Lupin.

"Er…Chudley Cannons…"

Mrs. Lupin raised an eyebrow. "They haven't won in nearly a century…"

"76 years to be exact…" Sirius said.

"Well, my dad thinks that they're good…it's just that they've been underhanded too many times…and they have the worst luck…"

"76 times in a row?" Mrs. Lupin asked.

Kierra shrugged. "I'm probably the worst person to talk to…I don't care much for Quidditch…I just go for the Tornadoes,"

"Because Samuel Willoughby's chaser?" Sirius asked. Kierra nodded, exchanging smirks with Dominique. "You, and every other girl in Britain…" Sirius said with a sigh. "honestly, he's not that good looking…"

"Yes, he is!" Kierra replied, but stopped shortly when she saw Mrs. Lupin glancing at her wearily. "Well…I suppose it doesn't matter much…like I said before, I don't care much for Quidditch…"

It was nearly seven o'clock in the evening, when Mrs. Lupin came into the living room, adorned in dark blue dress robes.

"I don't understand why they don't let your father off…it's New Years Eve, after all!" She said as she examined herself in the mirror. "We're going to be late for the party at this rate…" she said as she glanced down at Kierra and Remus, who were sitting on the carpet, playing chess.

"Where does your dad work?" Kierra asked, wincing as one of Remus's knights smashed one of her pawns.

"He works for Obscurus Books," Remus explained to Kierra, "that one publishing company…"

"Oh, David! Good, you're finally home!! Hurry up and change"—came Mrs. Lupin's voice from the front door.

"Ah, checkmate!" Remus said, grinning at Kierra as he took her queen. "Come on," he said, pulling her up, "I'll introduce you to my dad"—

Just then Mr. and Mrs. Lupin entered the living room.

"Dad"—

"Ah, this must be Kierra?" Mr. Lupin interrupted, looking at his son amusedly as he extended his hand towards Kierra.

"Pleased to meet you…" Kierra said as she smiled nervously and shook his hand.

"Ah, pleasure's all mine, dear…Remus has told us all about you…he hasn't been able to stop talking about you since he got here"—

"dad!"

"and I must say," Mr. Lupin continued, "he was right in saying you were pleasing to the eye!"

"Oh…" Kierra could feel herself blushing.

"daaaaad…." Remus whined...

Mr. Lupin smiled at having embarrassed the two. "Well, I should go change," he said as he turned to go upstairs. As he marched up the steps, he ran right into Sirius and Dominique. "Dominique! Sirius!" he exclaimed happily, "good to see you two"—

"My dear, the time!" Mrs. Lupin called after her husband, "we're running late!"

"Not my fault!" he replied as he stepped past Dominique and Sirius. "Bloody publishers wouldn't let me leave until I finished editing. They're determined to get that book released tomorrow morning…"

"What book, dad?" Remus asked.

"Oh…'Quidditch Through the Ages'…you lot will love it…I've gone through it all, and it is by far the most concise book on Quidditch…it's by Kennilworthy Whisp"—

Sirius gasped. "Didn't he write 'Beating the Bludgers'??"

"Yes, it's the same guy…more reason why there's so much buzz about it coming out…"

"Wonder if my dad knows…perhaps I should owl him…" Kierra said.

"Oh, your father is Jack Nakofsky, isn't he?" Mr. Lupin said. "He's a good writer…can't say I agree with him all the time…but good writer all the same…" he said as he disappeared up the stairs.

"Well, that went a bit better…" Remus commented.

"Much better…" Kierra replied.

Fifteen minutes later, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin were hurrying down the stairs. "Well, we're off now…don't hesitate to apparate over if you need anything." Mr. Lupin said, as he adjusted his robes.

"Are you sure you kids will be ok?" Mrs. Lupin asked as she grabbed her purse and coat.

"Yes, mum we'll be fine," Remus replied, "don't worry about us!"

"I just thought you'd all be bored," Mrs. Lupin said as she went towards the door, "I can't imagine what you'd all do to keep busy until midnight…"

"Can you not?" Mr. Lupin asked, as Mrs. Lupin went outside, so she did not hear. "Alright, you kids have fun, be good…" he said, though sounding as if he didn't care what they did.

"Well…what do you all want to do?" Remus asked when his parents left. Sirius had just come downstairs, hauling a large black bag with him. "Er, what's that?"

"Dr. Filibuster's fireworks," Sirius replied with a sly grin, "I was thinking we could start the new year off with these…"

"excellent…" Kierra said excitedly, pulling out several fireworks from the bag.

"You've got a lot in there...well, if you guys really want to..." Remus said as he glanced over Kierra's shoulder.

"yea!!" Sirius and Kierra exclaimed together.

Remus grinned. "I think we've got ourselves a female James..."

"Château de Chenonceau...bien sûr..." Dominique murmured. The group turned around to see Dominique looking at photos that were displayed on the bookshelf. They all drew nearer to see a photo of Remus and Dominique in their five year old forms, standing in front of a large castle. They had their arms around each other, and Dominique was kissing Remus on the cheek, while the former had a look of revulsion on his face, as he tried pulling away from Dominique by tugging on one of her pigtails.

Remus grinned. "Remember that?" he asked, glancing at Dominique, "I came with your family to tour the châteaus..."

"…and I threw up when I saw the dungeon..." Dominique finished, with a look of reminiscence.

Remus laughed. "I love England and all...but I really miss France...we had so much fun living there..."

"So why did you guys move here?" Kierra asked, "not that I mind, of course...I'm glad you came here..." she added with a grin.

"Well, both my parents are originally from here...but then they moved to Paris because of my dad's work…we lived there for six years, but then moved back here because my dad got transferred back…conveniently soon after I was bitten..." Remus added as an afterthought. "The wizarding world is small in Paris…so when people talked, things spread around pretty fast…especially at school…"

"You went to muggle school?" Kierra asked.

"Yea…just for a year…I hated it…I wasn't liked very much, put it that way…"

Kierra frowned. "Aww…why?"

Remus shrugged. "Kids noticed that I'd disappear once a month…oh and also because I had such bad French…see, my parents always spoke English at home, so I never picked up much French…"

"Aw, your French isn't that bad!" Dominique said, turning to Kierra and Sirius. "He always wrote his letters in French and I wrote mine in English, so we could both practice…and I always understood his letters for the most part…" she said with a grin.

"Oooh…say something in French!" Kierra said excitedly, tugging on Remus's sleeve.

Remus looked at Kierra with both amusement and uncertainty. "er…"

"Come on Remy!" Sirius chimed in, "say something sexy!" causing Dominique to laugh.

"Etrange…" she muttered.

Sirius grinned and wrapped his arms around Dominique. "Now that sounded very sexy…what'd you say?"

Dominique grinned. "I called you a weirdo" she replied, as she turned to Remus and began to speak in rapid French, who in return, replied just as swiftly.

"Hey what are you guys saying??" Kierra demanded, looking from Dominique to Remus and back, "hellooooo…." And yet they ignored her, and continued to chat animatedly. Kierra sighed and turned to Sirius. "You following?"

Sirius shook his head. "Only French I know is 'bonjour' and 'ooh la la'…" he said with a grin as he turned to Dominique and Remus. "Oy Moony, I thought you said your French was bad!"

"He was just being modest!" Dominique said, finally going back to English.

Remus blushed slightly. "I didn't realize I could speak it fluently…"

"What were you guys saying??" Kierra asked.

"Were you making fun of us??" Sirius demanded, "I bet anything they were…"

Remus grinned as he headed towards the kitchen. "Of course we weren't…we were just talking about Kierra…"

"What about me??" Kierra asked, turning to Dominique, who giggled.

"Oh…it was nothing," she replied as she headed up the stairs, "Remus was just saying he thinks you're cute when you get all inquisitive…"

"Ohh…" Kierra said, blushing. "well then…I'm just gonna go help him with the dishes then…" she said as she followed Remus out to the kitcen.

"Do you make it a point to trash every place you stay in??" Dominique asked as she walked into Remus's room.

"Hey it's not all mine! Remus made the mess too…it's his room you know…" Sirius retorted as he plopped onto Remus's bed.

"Remus doesn't make messes…He's the tidiest person you'll ever meet! Well…with the exception of Lily Evans I suppose…" Dominique replied as she picked up a pair of Sirius's trousers from the floor and tossed it into the hamper. "You wanna help?" she asked curtly.

"Why should I, when I've got you to do all my work for me?" Sirius replied with a grin as he reclined against the pillows on the bed.

"I'm not your maid, you know!" Dominique said as she threw a dirty sock at Sirius's head.

"Hey!!!" Sirius exclaimed, as he peeled the sock off himself. He pulled out his wand and aimed it at Dominique, muttering a spell under his breath.

Sirius grinned at his handiwork. "Ah…now you are!"

Dominique was now clad in a small black maid's dress with a white apron tied around her waist.

"Sirius!!" Dominique exclaimed as she looked down at herself. "Ooh…I kind of like this…" she said as she looked at herself in the mirror.

"Me too!" Sirius chimed in. "Now…maid, pick up my clothes!" he ordered, pointing to a pile of clothing that lay on the floor.

Dominique raised an eyebrow at Sirius, but nonetheless, turned around and bent over to pick up his clothes. Just when she was about to stand up…

"Now, stay in that position!" he ordered, "…and back that arse up…that's it…right in my lap…"

Dominique giggled as Sirius pulled her into his lap and kissed her, but then gasped when he pushed her down onto the bed.

"Sirius! We can't!" she breathed.

"Because?" he asked, as he undid her apron.

"This is Remus's bed! That's just wrong!!"

"No it isn't"—

"Sirius! How would you feel if James did it on your bed"—

"ok, good point…er…" Sirius looked around the room desperately. "how about on the floor…"

Dominique hesitated for a moment. "Mmm…yea, ok…that'll work…"

Downstairs in the kitchen, Kierra wailed in pain as she accidentally dropped a knife on her foot.

"Kierra!! Oh gosh, are you ok??" Remus asked, quickly setting down a stack of clean plates on the table and rushing to Kierra's feet.

"yea…I'm fine…" she said, wincing as Remus poked at her foot.

"Did that hurt?" he asked.

"just a little…"

"It's not very deep…I can fix it for you…", Remus said, pulling out his wand, "derma reparo…" he said, instantly healing the cut. He pat Kierra's now flawless skin, glancing up at Kierra. "Better?" he asked.

"Yea…thanks…" she replied.

Remus pulled himself up from the ground, only a few inches stood between himself and Kierra.

"Is that all I get? A thanks?" Remus asked with a grin, as he pulled Kierra closer to him.

Kierra had her eyes locked in his. "What else do you want? Ohh…" she giggled as it hit her.

"You never cease to amuse me…" Remus said as he moved his hands from Kierra's waist to her face, cupping her cheeks gently as he pulled her in for a kiss.

"Ahem…"

Kierra and Remus wheeled around to see Dominique and Sirius standing at the kitchen entrance.

"Ohh…we didn't hear your guys come in!" Remus said as he pulled away from Kierra.

"Save your snogging for when it's midnight…" Sirius said as he set his bag of fireworks on the kitchen table. "You've only got few more minutes!"

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Oh you should talk, Black...."

Remus glanced at Sirius but then back to Dominique. "eww guys…were you snogging in my room?" he asked, looking slightly nauseated.

"Er…"

"Hey let's go set these fireworks off early!" Sirius said loudly, pulling Dominique by the arm towards the back door.  
Kierra gasped. "They weren't just snogging.!!"

"What?!" Remus bellowed.

"You and your bloody sixth sense!!" Dominique scowled as she hurried outside with Sirius.

Kierra grinned inwardly, but turned her attention to Remus, who was bolting out the kitchen.

"Where are you going??" she called after him.

"Sterilizing my room!!" Remus shouted back.

Kierra smiled as she stepped outside and took a deep breath as she inhaled the cold night air.

"Where's Remus?" Dominique asked as she helped Sirius unpack his bag.

"Oh, he went upstairs to sterilize his room" Kierra replied with a grin.

Dominique in return only rolled her eyes. "I told you Sirius…"

"Hey you just said we couldn't do it in his bed"—

"AAH I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THIS!!" Kierra shouted, covering her ears.

Sirius grinned. "Why? You wanted to be the first person to get laid in Remus's bedroom?"

Kierra wondered if they could see her turn red in the darkness. "No"—she said at once. "I didn't say that…"

"Ah…30 seconds to go…let's get these babies going!" Sirius said as he began to set the fireworks off.

"Hey you guys started without me!" Remus said as he came outside, ducking quickly to miss a shot of red sparks Sirius had sent into the air.

"Oy, sorry mate!" Sirius said as he glanced down at his watch. "Oooh…3…2…1…" Sirius turned to Dominique and kissed her lightly. When he pulled away, Dominique grinned at him. "Let me show you how the French bring in the new year…" she said as she pulled Sirius against her.

"Ugh…" Kierra and Remus said together, turning away from the snogging couple, only to face each other.

"Happy new year" Kierra said.

"Happy"—

Kierra had cut Remus off with a kiss. When she pulled away from him, Kierra could see that he looked slightly dazed, even through the darkness.

"wow…" he murmured at last.

"I don't understand why I can't sleep in the guest room…" Sirius murmured as he sat up in Remus's bed the following morning, "I feel bad that you've got to sleep on the floor…"

Remus, who was rolling up his sleeping bag, did not look up from his work as he replied, "I honestly don't mind sleeping on the floor…and you can't sleep in the guest room because Dominique and Kierra sleep there…and don't even vocalize the suggestion you want to make…"

Sirius laughed. "Am I that predictable?"

"We've all known each other too long…"

"Well, I would have only meant it as a joke…" Sirius replied with a grin.

"I know…"

"Well…how about Kierra sleep in here instead? You guys could both have the bed…and then D and I"—

"no I don't think so…"

"Why not? I don't think Dominique will mind…"

"But Kiera might…"

"Why…ooh….you guys haven't"—

"No…" Remus said quickly, turning on his heel to leave the bedroom.

"Moony! It's no biggie…you guys haven't been going out that long…"

Remus glanced at Sirius as they walked down the hallway, stopping outside the guestroom. "I know!" he replied, "I never said it was a big deal…"

"Oh…then why did you blush? I'm just kidding!!" Sirius said quickly as Remus glared at him. "Er, what are we doing here?"

"I thought we should check on the girls…it's nearly lunch time…"

"Oh, right…" Sirius said, knocking on the guestroom door….no answer.

"Must still be asleep," Remus said, gently opening the door. He and Sirius quietly tiptoed in, but they both stopped shortly at the sight before them.

"Oh…wow…." Sirius murmured.

Kierra and Dominique, whom were sharing the queen sized bed, were tangled in each others' arms and legs—they were holding each other; Kierra had her head rested against Dominique's chest, who in turn rested her head against Kierra's.

"Must…take…picture…" Remus whispered as he backed out of the room and bolted down the hall. He returned seconds later with a camera in hand.

"Take one for me too…" Sirius said excitedly, his eyes still glued to the girls.

Remus had begun to snap away when suddenly Dominique stirred and opened her eyes. She closed them, but opened them again, and let out a small scream in seeing Remus and Sirius in their room.

"Whaaa…." Kierra murmured as she got up. "OH MY GOD!!!" she shouted as she too saw Sirius and Remus.

"Just what were you two doing in here…with that???" Dominique shouted, pointing to Remus's camera.

Before Remus could so much as open his mouth, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin came rushing into the room.

"What's going on?? What happened??" Mrs. Lupin asked urgently.

"What on earth are you doing with a camera??" Mr. Lupin snapped at his son, who in return, smiled meekly.

The only person who seemed to take in the situation lightly was Sirius, who let out a chuckle when Mr. Lupin scolded Remus. "We just came in here to wake them up," Sirius said, "and well…oh show them the pictures, Moony…"

"You took pictures of them while they were sleeping??" Mrs. Lupin asked, staring at Sirius and Remus wide-eyed.

"Mum…it's not"—

"it is TOO a big deal!! I don't care if these ladies are you girlfriends…you have to respect their privacy!! Taking pictures without them knowing"—

"Mum!!!" Remus shouted, opening his camera and pulling out the instantly developed photos and showing them to Mr. and Mrs. Lupin. "We just thought it was funny…"

Mrs. Lupin glanced at the photo. "Ohh…"

"What?? What's there??" Dominique demanded, pulling herself out of bed, followed by Kierra. She snatched the picture from Remus and looked at it with Kierra.

"Oh!!" Kierra and Dominique said together.

"Did you guys arrange us"—

Sirius laughed. "No! You guys were like that when we found you…now…if you'll excuse us," Sirius said, snatching the pictures from Dominique and Kierra, "Remus and I need to blow these up, and make a few hundred copies of these…you know, just in case he or I ever need the leverage…" he said with a wink as he and Remus bolted out the room.

"Don't you dare!!!" Kierra shouted, chasing after them, along with Dominique. "You guys!!!"

Mr. and Mrs. Lupin glanced after the four teenagers and then at each other. "Aren't you glad we only had one child?" Mr. Lupin said to his wife as they turned to head downstairs.


	24. Chapter 24: Day of the Week

A/N: Thanks to Rhiannon's Dream from fanfiction net for pointing out my mistake in ch.23 (I accidentally switched Mr. and Mrs. Lupin w/ Mr. and Mrs. Weasley a few times…yea, I dunno…rolls eyes…) hopefully most people didn't see it b/c I corrected it straight away. Anywhos, thanks again!

Oh yea, I better do this now: WARNING: this chapter's very raunchy... (I love that word lol!) though I did try to write it tastefully…. (heehee…) sooo…don't say I didn't warn you! Oh and also, this chapter is waaaayy too long…im sorry…but I was determined to fit all this stuff into one chappie…didn't mean for it to get that long…soo…sorry..yea…ok its late, im sleepy, and im not editing this…im posting this sucker, and going to bed…

Chapter 24: Day of the Week

"Accio…"

Sirius grinned. "Nothing to summon, dear. Remus and I hid the pictures."

Dominique and Kierra frowned at the boys.

"Why do you guys have to be so difficult??" Kierra asked impatiently.

"We're not being difficult!" Remus said with a smile.

"No indeed," Sirius chimed in, "we haven't done any harm whatsoever…you two just be extra good to us"—

"And the pictures will remain safely hidden from public view…" Remus finished.

"Ahh…I love having women at my mercy…" Sirius commented, eyeing Dominique amusedly.

"Mercy?" Dominique asked, a light bulb seeming to have lit up over her head. "then perhaps you wouldn't mind a little game of mercy," she said, stepping towards Sirius, "muggle style."

"Er..say what?" Sirius asked, as Dominique took his hand.

"Back away"—Remus started, but it was too late. Dominique gripped Sirius's hand, twisting his entire arm, causing him to yelp in pain and collapse to his knees.

"owww oww let me goo!" he shouted.

"What's the magic word?" Dominique asked nonchalantly.

"Please?"

Dominique shook her head.

"Mercy…" Remus said quietly.

"Mercy!!" Sirius shouted. Dominique let go of Sirius, allowing him to slouch on the ground, and massage his arm. "Muggles play this? What a buncha nutters…" he breathed.

"Yea, I know…" Remus said.

"Damn, you're strong," Sirius said to Dominique as he pulled himself up. "And very feisty…" he added with a wink as he pulled Dominique closer to him.

Kierra snorted. "eww are you a masochist or something?"

"What??" Sirius sputtered, "I? A masochist??" Sirius paused momentarily as if to consider the matter. "Well…isn't everyone, to some extent?"

Kierra laughed. "Ew, no…I know I'm not…"

Sirius smirked. "Yea, right…"

"She isn't…" Dominique interjected, "she's more…sadistic than anything…"

"What??" Kierra and Sirius exclaimed together.

Dominique only grinned. "Kierra, please, I know what you stow away under your bed…"

"ooh, what??" Sirius asked excitedly.

"Er…guys…" Remus interrupted, almost timidly. "What the heck are you guys talking about? Masochists…and stuff…"

Dominique grinned, Sirius chuckled, and Kierra blushed.

"You don't know what that is? Seriously??" Sirius asked incredulously.

Remus glared at Sirius. "It's something dirty, I take it…well, my mind isn't in the gutter, you know…"

Dominique laughed. "And so it isn't…well, uh…see, masochists…they er… " she paused a moment, before going to Remus and whispering in his ear.

"What??" he exclaimed, causing Sirius and Kierra to burst into laughter. "Then…if you're sadistic…in terms of…that…then…it means…"

"yea…." Dominique said with a grin, turning to Sirius, "Didn't you teach this boy anything??"

"Sure we did! James and I talked to him and Peter about the birds and the bees ages ago, didn't we Remus?" Sirius said with a grin.

"Yea, but"—

"They had to tell you that stuff??" Kierra exclaimed, "awww you're so cute!!" she said with a giggle.

"I know, isn't he just the cutest thing you ever saw?" Sirius said, pinching one of Remus's cheeks.

"Ok then!" Remus said impatiently, slapping Sirius's hand away from his face.

"Aw, we've embarrassed lil' Remy…" Sirius said in a baby voice.

"Oh shut it" Remus replied irritably as everyone else laughed.

"I'm just pulling your leg, mate!" Sirius said with a grin, "Anyway, I don't get why you're getting all pissy on me…it's not my fault you're all innocent and naïve"—

"I am NOT innocent and naïve!!" Remus said hotly.

Sirius raised and eyebrow at him.

"Ok, I'm not THAT innocent and naïve…"

"You're completely innocent and naïve."

"I am not…"

"Are too.."

"Am not!!"

"Oh yea?" Sirius asked amusedly, "then why make I ask, do you think girls love you?"

"er…."

"Because they think you're cute!!" Sirius exclaimed. "You even look innocent…like…some…little…"

"baby?" Dominique finished with a grin.

"What?" Remus asked curtly, turning to Dominique, who only laughed.

"I'm sorry, he's right, Remus…" Dominique said. "I've heard girls talking about you a few times…it's the same thing…you just have this squeaky clean image…I think a lot of it is due to the fact that you hang out with Sirius, James and Peter…("Hey!" Sirius exclaimed) I mean, they're all such trouble makers and well, you know how they are…you're the good boy of the group…makes you stand out quite a bit…"

Remus turned to Kierra. "Why do you like me?"

Kierra smiled and took one of Remus's hands. "I love every little thing about you…and that includes your cute and innocent image," she said with a grin.

"Oh…so even you think I'm naïve? Great…" Remus said dully.

"I never said you were! I meant that you have the appearance! And anyway, I think it's sexy, so quit sulking about it!" Kierra exclaimed.

At this, Remus smiled slightly.

"Look! It's snowing!!" Dominique exclaimed, pointing out the window.

"oohh, let's go play outside!" Sirius said excitedly, pulling Dominique by the arm and running outside.

"Coming guys??" Dominique called out to Remus and Kierra as Sirius dragged her away.

"Yea! Let me get my coat!" Kierra called back, as she headed up the stairs, running right into Mr. and Mrs. Lupin.

"Oh, where are all of you headed?" Mrs. Lupin asked.

"Oh…we're just going to be outside, playing in the snow…." Kierra answered, now feeling incredibly childish. 'Isn't there a more sophisticated way to say playing??' Kierra thought.

"Ah, alright. Well, could you tell Remus we're going out to do some shopping? We'll be back in about an hour." said Mrs. Lupin.

"Sure thing!" Kierra replied. She said goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Lupin and watched them leave through the front door. Suddenly, she heard them scream.

"Oh my gosh, we're sorry!!!" Kierra could hear Sirius exclaim, "we thought you were Remus and Kierra!!"

Kierra grinned and ran back down the stairs to peak out the living room window. It was snowing lightly outside, but Mr. and Mrs. Lupin were covered with snow. It looked as if Dominique and Sirius had thrown giant snowballs at them.

"What happened? I heard screaming!" Remus said as he hurried into the living room.

"Oh…Sirius and Dominique attacked your parents…thinking they were us…"

Remus grinned as he watched his dad pull out his wand to dry themselves.

"Well, shall we get our coats?" Kierra asked. "Oooh, we can go through the back door, and sneak up on them with an ambush!!" she said excitedly.

Remus grinned. "Oh…I was thinking we could take advantage of the quiet time that we have before us…"

Kierra raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"I haven't shown you my bedroom yet, have I?" Remus asked, pulling her towards the stairs.

Kierra shook her head slowly.

"How abominably rude of me…well, let me do so now…"

"I'm in Remus Lupin's room…" Kierra murmured as she stood in Remus's bedroom, staring wide-eyed at her surroundings, trying to take everything in at once. "About a year ago…this was only a fantasy…" she said as she glanced at the shelves of books that stood against the wall. "wow you've got a lot of books…"

Remus grinned. "yea, I suppose I do…well, I didn't bring you up here to look at my books…" he said, standing behind Kierra and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"No…"

"You know why I brought you up here?" he asked softly in her ear.

"no…" Kierra breathed.

Remus leaned in closer to her ear and kissed it, opening his mouth slightly to allow her to feel his cool breath. He could feel Kierra's body tense up. It was good-tense, he was pretty sure.

Kierra made to turn her face, in order to meet his mouth with hers, but Remus gently held her in place.

"Don't move" he murmured. Remus turned Kierra's face towards himself and kissed her, allowing his tongue to push through her mouth. After some time, Remus pulled away slightly, only to lower his head to her neck, caressing her skin with his mouth. As he reached her collarbone, Remus felt the rough brush of fabric against his chin. He again pulled away slightly. "Can I take this off?" he asked softly, fingering the buttons of her shirt.

Kierra looked at Remus. "Uh huh…" she said hoarsely.

Remus smiled inwardly as he undid the buttons of her shirt. There had been a note of desperation in her voice… As he threw her shirt on the floor, Remus went back to her collarbone, completely ignoring the sight of the newly exposed flesh. He didn't care what it looked like. He just wanted to feel it.

Kierra let out a small moan as she felt Remus's teeth pressing against the base of her neck. Just as he began to drag his mouth down her chest, Remus reached behind her and unclasped her bra with the whip of a finger.

Kierra felt a sudden urge to say something…to do something…and yet, her arms hung limply at her sides, her mouth remained slightly open, her eyes remained closed.. He told her not to move, and so she didn't. She couldn't…as if he had put the imperius curse on her…All her energy, all of her senses, were concentrated solely on the places Remus touched her…

But now, as Remus fingered the belt holes of her jeans, Kierra felt the uncomfortable friction between her skin and Remus's shirt.

Kierra breathed heavily as she tugged at his shirt with both of her hands, trying to find the buttons.

"You want it off?" Remus asked, as he pulled away from her.

Kierra looked at Remus. He looked and sounded so calm and collected, while she in contrast was breathing fast, looking anxious, and unable to string two words together…

Still breathing heavy, Kierra nodded. Remus obligingly peeled his shirt off, but before it could even hit the ground, he was already pushing Kierra towards his bed, unzipping her jeans as he did so.

"You're ready, aren't you?" he asked as he pulled his lips away from hers and laying her gently on his bed.

Why did he have to get her permission for everything??

"yea…" she muttered impatiently, reaching for Remus's belt buckle. Remus however, took hold of her hands and placed them at her sides and smiled slightly.

"Patience is a virtue, you know…" Remus said, as he began to pull off her jeans.

"I'm not virtuous…" Kierra replied as she took matters into her own hands and stripped off her jeans.

"Yes you are…I like your knickers by the way…"

Kierra looked down at herself. She was wearing an old pair of days-of-the-week underwear..She was currently sporting her Tuesday underwear, when in fact, today was Sunday.

"Thanks"— but Remus cut her off by pulling her by the legs, as he reached over to pull her Sunday underwear off. As he slid in between her parted legs and began trailing kisses down her neck, Kierra let out a small moan as she tightly gripped her legs around Remus's middle.

"wait…" Remus murmured in her ear, reading her mind.

"no…please…now…"

"How could I be so stupid…" Remus muttered, ignoring Kierra as he pulled out his wand and aimed it at the door, locking it and putting an imperturbable charm on it. "Now," he murmured, tossing his wand on the ground and turning back to Kierra, "where was I?" he asked as Kierra tugged impatiently at his pants. Remus in turn moved away from her slightly, so his pants were out of her reach. "What do you want, Kierra?" he asked as he planted kisses on her stomach. "tell me what you want…"

"you…." She breathed, "takem off…" she said, indicating at his pants. Remus obeyed, and pulled off his remaining articles of clothing. As he sunk in between Kierra's legs again, and pressed himself against her, Remus could feel the rise and fall of Kierra's body as she breathed heavily.

Remus glanced down at Kierra and smiled slightly. "Brace yourself…" he said.

"Dominique, come on!!" Sirius whined.

"I'm tired! We've been at it for half an hour...and I'm freezing…and this cashmere sweater is brand new, and it's all wet!! Let's just go inside, see why Remus and Kierra never came outside…" Dominique replied, "SIRIUS! I WAS BEING SERIOUS!!!" she shouted as a snowball hit her in the face.

Sirius frowned. "Yea, let's go check on those two…at least Remus might've been able to withstand a little snowball fight…then again, he is awfully fragile…." He said with a deep sigh.

"Are you ok?" Dominique asked, as she wiped the last of the snow off her face.

"huh?" Sirius asked, snapping out of his trance. "Oh yea, I'm fine…"

Dominique smiled. "Aww….you miss James, don't you?"

"What?? No…I mean…yea…well, in a..friend…sorta way…whatever…" he replied coolly, as though the matter didn't bother him at all.

"Uh huh…"

"It's just that there's some things I can't do with you…or with Remus or Peter…I can only do it with James…"

Dominique smirked.

"I didn't mean it like that!!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I know! I know!" Dominique said through her laughter. "I know what you meant…only with James could you ever have an enjoyable snowball fight…"

"Yes, that's precisely it!" Sirius said seriously, while Dominique laughed at him. "I mean, when we're playing against each other…it's always the best…since we're like equal strengths going against each other…we can go at it for hours…"

Dominique giggled.

"Really, D…stop interpreting it like that…" Sirius said irritably.

"touchy, aren't we?" Dominique said as she strolled past him. "Well, I'm going inside…you're welcome to sit out here and sulk if you want…"

Sirius sighed. "Nah, I think I'll come in"—"AAAGH!!!" he shouted as a giant snowball hit him in the face.

Dominique grinned at Sirius before running off towards the house. "Where do you think you're going missy?!?!" Sirius shouted after her, scooping up a ball of snow from the ground as he chased her.

Just as Dominique reached the door, Sirius took aim and hurled his snowball at her, hitting her square in the butt, just as she disappeared into the house.

Kierra gasped as Remus thrust himself against her with a final climactic tenor. For over a minute, neither spoke. Only the sound of panting could be heard. Finally, Remus pulled away from Kierra and fell beside her.

"Well…" he breathed, glancing sideways to Kierra, who had closed her eyes and was smiling blissfully. "I take it you enjoyed that…"

"oh…very much…" Kierra said, opening her eyes and curling up against Remus, "you know, that was seriously the best I've ever had…and I've had more than my fair share of"—

"Really, Kierra…do you want to get into that discussion?" Remus interjected.

Kierra giggled. "No, I think not….well," she said after a moment, "I do think you should just be the standard, by which all future guys should be judged against…"

Remus eyed her warily.

"Oh no! That's not what I meant!" Kierra said immediately, sitting up in Remus's bed. "I don't plan on having any future guys, of course…I mean…it's just you…forever…er, no! I don't mean for like eternity…I mean, I don't wanna marry you…I mean…not now…I mean, not that I've been planning it or anything…oh gosh…" Kierra moaned as she felt herself going red.

Remus in turn chuckled. "Kierra, get a grip…I understand perfectly what you meant"—

"That you're just really, really good"—

Remus smiled. "You flatter me…it was you, really…"

"No it wasn't"—

"Really, if you hadn't set me off, taunting me about being all cute and naïve, I never would've had the urge to prove you wrong…"

Kierra gaped at Remus. "That's why…you…did that…to prove us wrong??"

Remus grinned slyly.

"You are so cute, Remus!!" Kierra giggled. She stopped when she heard the front door open, followed by Dominique's laughter, and the door slamming shut again. "Perhaps we should go back down…before they try to find us…"

"And before my parents come back home…"

"Right…" Kierra replied, "well…nice to know, that all I have to do is make fun of you to get some"—

"Mrs. Lupin!! Mr. Lupin!!" they heard Sirius exclaim downstairs. "Oooh you bought cookies!!"

"Better hurry up…" Remus said urgently as he grabbed his pants off the floor.

"Where's Kierra and Remus??" they heard Mrs. Lupin say, "I only saw you two outside when we were coming down the street…did they go in early?"

"No, they didn't come out at all!" they heard Dominique say, "That's why we came back in"—

"Hmm, no one else down here, I suppose they're upstairs…I'll go get them…" they heard Mrs. Lupin say.

"Aw crap…" Remus said as he quickly pulled his shirt on.

"I could've sworn I had a bra…" Kierra muttered.

"Remus!! Kierra!!"

"Look for it later!" Remus said, taking Kierra by the hand and pulling her out of his room, "come on, let's go downstairs…"

"Mum, dad! Hey!" Remus said cheerfully as he came downstairs into the living room with Kierra. "You called?"

"Yes, I brought your favorite cookies from the store today, they're in the kitchen…better get some before Sirius finishes them up…" Mrs. Lupin said as she settled down onto the sofa. Just then, Sirius entered the living room, followed by Dominique (who scowled at him) with several cookies in hand, and several more in his mouth.

"Oy, where were you two?" Dominique asked.

"Er…we decided to stay inside instead…" Remus said quickly.

"Why? you missed a good snowball fight!" Sirius said between bites of his cookies, "got D right in the face!"

"yes, but I got you back, didn't I?" Dominique snapped.

"Oh, we were just…playing chess…"

"Really?" Mrs. Lupin asked, showing an unnatural display of interest. "Who won?"

"He did"—

"She did"— they said at once. Kierra laughed nervously and punched Remus playfully in the arm. "Oh, he's just trying to be nice…he creamed me…completely…"she said.

"Oh, well…that's Remus for you, isn't it…now…funny thing here…perhaps you guys could clear this up for me," Mrs. Lupin said with a small laugh, "well, I was wondering…how on earth you managed a whole game of chess...when Remus's chess set is right here…" Mrs. Lupin said, pointing at the chess set that sat on the coffee table before them.

"Er…" Kierra stammered. She glanced briefly at Mrs. Lupin, only to see her staring bewilderedly at Remus. Then she noticed it; Remus had his shirt on inside-out. 'Oh dear..' she thought.

"You know," Mr. Lupin interrupted, "I recall seeing a large patch of snowy terrain outside, that's remained untouched by you kids…why don't you all go out there and build a snowman or two…or three or four…"

"Excellent idea sir!" Sirius said at once, rushing towards the door, followed by Dominique, Kierra and Remus.

"David!! They"—

"Honestly woman," they could hear Mr. Lupin say as they made their way outside, "didn't you ever hear about the birds and the bees?"

"Hate to break it to you kids, but I think you're busted…" Sirius said as they walked outside.

"No shit…" Kierra muttered. "Oh my God…I can't believe your parents know…and Remus, for heaven's sake, you're shirt's inside out!"

"Oh damn…" Remus muttered, though he didn't bother to fix it up.

"Well, your dad doesn't seem to care very much…" Dominique said hopefully. "I bet he'll just calm your mum down…you just need to give it some time…"

"Yea…a few hours…I'm sure she'll be alright…" Remus said. Kierra groaned.

"This is gonna be too awkward…Remus…your mum didn't even like me to begin with…she probably hates me now…maybe I should just go"—

"No!" Remus exclaimed at once, "I mean…no…don't…it'll be fine, trust me…"

Kierra sighed. "yea, ok…" she said dully.

"Of all times to get caught…it had to be your first time with him…" Dominque said, as she and Kierra walked alone down the street, as Sirius and Remus walked the other way.

"Gosh, I know…"

"How was it?"

"What??"

Dominique grinned. "Was he any good?"

"Dominique!!"

"Oh, come on, I told you about Sirius!!"

"Fine…" Kierra sighed. "Yes…he was…well…no, good is a complete understatement…"

Dominique giggled. "Really?"

"Yea…he was just…wow…."

"Was he better than Kyle?"

Kierra smiled for the first time since she came outside. "Poor Kyle…he doesn't even compare to Remus…"

"Well…you still got caught…"

"Yea…" Kierra's smile broadened. "but now that I think about…I mean…as horrible as it is that we got caught…and his mum hates me…it was totally worth it…"

Dominique laughed. "Wow, he must've been really good…hey, maybe we can trade guys for a night"—

"ew, D!! I don't even want to touch Sirius"—

"I was kidding!!" Dominique laughed.

"So…how was it?"

Remus grinned. "You know how you said earlier that you love having women at your mercy?"

Sirius chuckled. "Remus, you dog!! Got a taste of it, did you?"

Remus nodded.

"What happened?"

"Oh…I don't want to betray Kierra…I don't think she'd be too happy if I told"—

"Oh please, Remus…you see D and Kierra down there?" Sirius said, pointing down the street towards the girls. "Bet you anything Kierra's telling Dominique about it…"

"You think so?"

"Girls tell each other everything…probably getting down to every last detail…down to the color of your knickers…"

At this, Remus grinned.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Kierra was wearing her Tuesday underwear..."

"Huh?"

"I think it's a muggle thing…I've seen Dominique with those too"—

"WHAT??"

"When we were little!! Geez calm down, Sirius, it's not my fault she always ran around in her underwear…"

"When you say little"—

"I mean when we were four…I'm serious!!" Remus said defensively. Finally, Sirius sighed and nodded.

"Fine," he said, "I believe you…so what about them?"

"Er…oh yea, days-of-the-week underwear…I thought just little kids wore them…"

"Ah well, Kierra's got a small butt"—

"You've been looking??" Remus asked.

"No! I mean…not on purpose…you just notice…look, it was before you two ever when out anyway…I saw her and thought, 'oh she's got a small bum…' and then I went on with life…so don't worry Moony…"

"Right…ok…what was I saying? Oh yea, so she was wearing those…except hers said Tuesday on them, when today's Sunday…you just reminded me of that when you mentioned knickers…." Remus said with a grin, but suddenly his smile melted. "Oh, I shouldn't have said anything…"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Oh geez, you think I care that your girlfriend wears little girls underwear? I won't even be tempted to repeat that little bit of information…hell, I'll probably forget…"

"Great…"

"So, now that your parents…no, take that back…now that your mum hates Kierra, what are you gonna do?"

"She doesn't hate her…" Remus began, "I mean…probably a bit upset…but she'll get over it…"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at him. "What??" Remus asked.

"Remus, she's gonna hate that girl…she'll think of her as the corrupted girl who seduced her beloved son…"

"She didn't seduce me…hell, it was the other way around…"

Sirius grinned. "Well, be that as it may, you think your mum will think that?"

"You really think she'll blame Kierra?"

"Of course! You're sweet, innocent, little Remus! Precious, cute little"—

"Ok I've got the point!" Remus said irritably. "Bloody hell…you're right…she thinks I'm perfect or something…and she's gonna go off on me for dating a whore…and beg me to dump her…great…I can't let her think that of Kierra…"

"Well what are you gonna do, mate? Go and tell her that you're the one who initiated it and Kierra's a perfectly sweet girl who's not to blame?"

Remus paused for a moment. "There's an idea…" and without further ceremony, Remus ran back towards his house.

"Oy!! Moony!! I was kidding!! Good God, you ARE naïve…" Sirius muttered as jogged after Remus.

"Mum! Dad!" Remus huffed as he tore into the kitchen where his parents sat, talking over a cup of tea.

"Remus…glad you came in…we wanted to talk to you"—

Mr. Lupin cleared his throat rather loudly as he pulled out the Daily Prophet. "Oh, alright, I wanted to talk to you…" Mrs. Lupin said.

"Mum, listen,"—

"sit down, Remus," Mrs. Lupin interrupted, "er, close the kitchen door though…where are your friends?"

"They're outside still," Remus said, as he took a seat between his parents, "but listen, mum"—

"No honey. You're going to listen. I know you're a good boy, Remus. You're smart, and kind…you're absolutely wonderful…but we all make mistakes"—

"Are going to tell me Kierra's a mistake??" Remus interrupted.

"Look, Sirius and Remus are heading back inside!" Dominique exclaimed, pointing to the the boys, who were running inside. "I bet it's safe for us to go in too…come on, I'm freezing…"

"Are you sure??" Kierra asked nervously.

"Well, we'll see Sirius and Remus first…if it's not safe, we'll lock ourselves in our room, or go back outside, ok?"

"Sure…"

The girls headed back inside the house, but they stopped suddenly when they saw Sirius standing with his ear pressed against the kitchen door. He held his finger up to his mouth to tell them to be quiet.

Dominique looked at him questioningly, but tiptoed over to him, along with Kierra, and followed suit by pressing their ears against the door.

"Are you going to tell me Kierra's a mistake??" they could hear Remus ask sharply.

Kierra's eyes widened, and she looked at Dominique nervously.

"Frankly, yes, dear, I think she is…" they heard Mrs. Lupin say. "I mean, she seems like a nice girl…but…she's not for you"—

"But I like her!!"

"Look, I know she's pretty…no doubt that she is…but beauty isn't the only virtue, Remus"—

"I know that! I'm not shallow, mum…"

"Honey, I know you're not…but....she's just…she's not a good influence on you…"

"She hasn't influenced me"—

"Then what about this incident today? Remus, the only reason why your father and I haven't had any talks with you about…dating…and relationships…is because we trust you to show good judgment! But then…here you are today…you let this girl"—

"Mum, I didn't let her…"

"then??"

"Dad, help me out here!!" they heard Remus cry.

There was the sound of Mr. Lupin sighing. "I've told your mother that what goes on between you and your girlfriend is none of our business…"

"David, how could you say that"—

"Quite easily! He's an adult, my dear! He can do as he pleases…"

"Yes, but he needs someone to point him in the right direction! He doesn't know what's good for him!"

"Mum, I can tell the difference between right and wrong, and what's good and what's bad…and Kierra isn't bad!"

"But she's not great either"—

"You're not the one who's dating her, mum…let me be the judge of that…"

"You don't have to date a person to know how they are," Mrs. Lupin snapped, "I'm sorry to say, but I see nothing extraordinary about her"—

"I doubt you're sorry"—

"And what about your condition? Did you ever think about that?? She'll probably run away and tell everyone if she found out!"

"She already knows about it…"

"What??" they heard Mr. and Mrs. Lupin say together.

"Yea…she noticed that I always got sick…and she…er…snuck out once…and well, found out…"

"She spied on you"—

"Because she was worried about me!!" they heard Remus bellow, through the sound of a chair skidding across the floor, which they took to be Remus getting up. "And as you can see," he continued, "she hasn't run away…and she hasn't told anyone! Look, you're my mum…I love you, and I respect you…but you need to understand, that I love Kierra too, and"—

Remus stopped at a crashing sound….in the shock of Remus's statement, Kierra had fallen through the door, and now sat on the kitchen floor, staring at Remus. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin stared at Kierra, but then shifted their gaze upward, to see Dominique and Sirius standing by the entrance, also looking quite surprised.

"Er…" Sirius said nervously.

"You love me??" Kierra asked, looking up at Remus apprehensively

Remus stared down at Kierra with equal apprehension, but then held out his hand to help her up.

"Yea…I do…Ever since Dominique pointed it out last month before my transformation,"

(everyone but Kierra and Remus's gaze fell on Dominique, who smiled nervously and stepped behind Sirius to hide) "I've been fighting the urge to admit it to myself…because we haven't been going out very long….but, it's a pointless battle….I love you…" Remus was breathing heavily, and staring intently at Kierra whose gaze never tore away from him.

"I know…it's a bold declaration, but"—

Kierra let out something between a laugh and a cry, as she threw her arms around him. "I love you too!!" she said in a raspy voice, as she had begun to cry.

Remus's widened slightly in surprise, but he smiled. "Really?" he asked.

"Really…"

The declaration was followed by a very pregnant silence, which was finally interrupted by a heavy sniff.

"You guys are so cute!!" Dominique announced, pulling out a handkerchief to dab her eyes.

"Good heavens…" Sirius muttered as he put an arm around Dominique and kissed her head, "you are way too emotional…"

Mr. Lupin raised an eyebrow at Sirius and Dominique before getting up and addressing Mrs. Lupin. "I daresay, with such dramas at our hands, who would ever want to read a novel?"

"Oh dear, be sure to write to us when you can!" Mrs. Lupin said as she walked with her son to platform 9 ¾.

"Of course, mum…"

"and you remembered to pack your thermal underwear"—

"muuum!!!" Remus whinned as he glared at Dominique and Kierra, who giggled.

"Oh honey, you'll be missed greatly!" Mrs. Lupin cried as she hugged Remus.

"Oh for heaven's sake, don't smother the boy…" Mr. Lupin said as he pulled his wife away, "run along now, you've got a few more months left here, you just enjoy yourself…"

"Oy, we've got only a few minutes until the train leaves, we better go!" Sirius said, as he shook Mr. Lupin's hand.

Mrs. Lupin smiled at Sirius. "Try to stay out of trouble Sirius, and remember you all are always welcomed at our house."

"Thanks for having us!" Dominique said as she hugged Mrs. Lupin. Sirius nudged Dominique and quickly they waved goodbye and quickly boarded the train.

Remus said his last goodbyes to his parents, and quickly grabbed his things and headed towards the train.

"Come on Kierra…" he said.

"You go ahead, dear…" Remus turned around. It was not Kierra, but his mother, who had her hand on Kierra's shoulder.

"Er…"

"I just wanted to talk to her quickly, don't worry, you'll have your girlfriend back in a minute!" Mrs. Lupin said.

"Alright then…I'll save you a spot, Kierra!" Remus said as he boarded the train.

Kierra smiled at Remus but then turned around to face Mrs. Lupin.

"Mrs. Lupin," she began, "I'm sorry if I"—

"No…you needn't apologize for anything…it should be me…" Mrs. Lupin said. "I am truly sorry for how I've been towards you…and how…I failed to recognize how you two feel about each other…he's my only child…and he's been through so much," Mrs. Lupin paused to wipe her eyes. "I just want what's best for him…I only want him to be happy…and clearly, you do that for him. So…take care of him, please…"

"Of course…" Kierra replied softly as she stared at Mrs. Lupin.

"And you let us know if he ever gives you trouble…we'll send him a howler straight away." Mr. Lupin added lightheartedly. "Well, off with you now, it was good to meet you, dear."

"Thanks so much for having us!" Kierra said as she waved Mr. and Mrs. Lupin goodbye.

As Kierra made her way down the aisles in search for her friends, she couldn't help but wince in pain. As happy (and relieved) as she was for leaving on good terms with Remus's parents, she had been feeling incredibly sore all morning from yesterday's…physical activities….

"KIKI!!!!" Kierra wheeled around to see James, grinning from ear to ear and waving excitedly at her. "You survived the holidays with the in-laws, congrats!!"

Kierra laughed. "shut up, Potter…gosh, I really miss saying that…"

"Strangely enough, I have too!!" Kierra did not even need to turn around to know who said that.

"Lily!!!" Kierra jumped on Lily, knocking her to the floor, scaring several third years whom were passing by.

"How was Athens"—

"Beautiful"—

"Did you say you missed me?" James piped up.

Lily grinned as she lifted her self off the ground. "I might've…"

"Really??"

Lily giggled. "Yes…I did miss you…"—

"I missed you too!" James announced, throwing his arms around Lily and planting a kiss on her cheek.

"Aargh…come on, let's find some seats…" Lily said, pulling James away from herself.

"There you all are!!" Remus said, opening the door to the compartment he sat in. "James! Lily!!"

"Moony!!" James ran up to Remus, but stopped suddenly. "Heyyyy….way to go Moony!!"

"Why, what happened?" Kierra asked as she took a seat inside.

"and way to go Kierra!" James said with a smirk.

"I'm lost…" Lily announced.

"James!!" Kierra shouted as it dawned upon her.

"Yea, you're not the only one with a sixth sense, just remember that!"

"Really?? You two…." Lily said excitedly, grinning at Kierra. "Er, right…later…" she said quickly. "Er, where's Dominique and Sirius?"

"and Alice and Frank?" Kierra asked.

"Oh, they're in another compartment, with Frank's friends…" James replied.

"Oh, ok…oy, there's Dominique, and"—

"SIRIUS!!!"

Kierra winced in pain as James trampled over her feet in efforts to reach Sirius.

"Prongs!! Good to see you!!" Sirius exclaimed, trying to hide his excitement, but failing miserably.

"Erm, you too…" James said, clearing his throat and deepening his voice.

"Oh good grief, you two know you wanna hug each other and scream with joy…" Remus said, as he waved to Peter Pettigrew, who just joined the group.

James and Sirius looked at each other, hesitating for a moment. Finally, they grinned.

"yeaaaa…." The said in unison as they hugged.

"It was so quiet at home without you!" James said as they sat in the compartment.

"Yea, well…snowball fights were no fun without you…Dominique over here cares more about keeping her cashmeres clean…and Moony had to get himself laid"—

"Padfoot!!" Remus exclaimed.

James grinned. "awww, is lil weemy embarrassed"—

"Oh gosh let's not get started with this again…" Kierra said, rolling her eyes. "Er…actually…maybe we should…" she said thoughtfully, grinning slyly at Remus.

As the train rolled on, the jolly party soon turned cranky.

"It is way too stuffy in here..." Lily said at last.

"No shit…seven people is a bit too much"—

"Hey guys!!" a voice came as the door slid open.

"Alice!!" Dominique and Kierra said at once.

"Oh bloody hell, we don't have any more room in here…" Sirius said.

Alice frowned at Sirius. "Well, make some…I finally got away from Frank's nutty friends…you guys can't send me back there…"

"Fine…alright, up you go, D…" Sirius said as he pulled Dominique onto his lap.

"Nice to know I've always got a say in these things…" Dominique said sarcastically as she curled up against Sirius.

Soon after, everyone was chatting away about his or her vacation. Remus had been laughing at one of James's anecdotes, when he glanced over at Dominique, to see that she took no part in any conversation, but only stared dully out the window.

"You alright?" he asked in an undertone.

Dominique turned quickly to Remus. "Oh! Yea…I'm fine…just..tired…"

"You sure?"

"positive…" she said, smiling meekly at Remus, whom she was sure was not convinced.

Just then, their attention was taken away from each other when Sirius pulled something out of his pockets.

"Oh…my…gosh…I want a copy of this!!!" Lily squealed, "I can't believe you two"—

"Is that the bloody photo??" Kierra snapped. "I can't believe you guys saved them!!" she said, attempting to snatch the photo from Lily, only to be held back by Remus, who laughed.

"Here, give it to me…" Sirius said through his laughter, taking the photo from Lily, "we'll have secret distributions of these pictures later…"

"Sirius!!" Kierra whinned.

"Aww…I think you and Dominique make a cute couple!" Alice commented.

"Oh shut up…" Kierra snarled as she rested her head against Remus. He, however, had not felt Kierra's presence, as he had glanced back at Dominique, and watched her curiously as she kept putting her hand to her stomach, looking slightly nauseated, as if she were about to throw up.

Their eyes met only once, which forced Remus to return his attention to Kierra. As he ran his fingers through her soft, brown hair, his mind kept wandering back to what could possibly be wrong with Dominique.


	25. Chapter 25: Kierra's Brawls

Chapter 25: Kierra's Brawls

"ARGH!! I hate potions!!!" Kierra whined several weeks later, after a particularly trying lesson.

"You're not alone," Remus replied, as they walked on towards the Great Hall for lunch, "this is my worst class...I did horrible on our last essay..."

"You got a 7 out of 10!"

"Er..."

"I got a bloody 5!"

"What?? But we worked on them together! I even read yours, it looked pretty good"—

"If you haven't caught on yet, Moony, Professor Keifer doesn't fancy Kierra as much as you do" James said with a grin.

"I don't understand why he hates you so much...you never did anything to him..." Remus said with a sigh as they entered the great hall.

"Well...I didn't exactly do anything to him...per say...I did sort of...badmouth him once, and he heard me...I think that's why he hates me..." Kierra said at last.

"What'd you say??" James asked incredulously.

"Well...back in our fourth year, I was complaining to Alice about all the homework he gave us...and I...sorta...called him...a fat, pompous jackass"—James and Remus fell into laughter, "oh shut up!" Kierra snapped.

Remus chuckled. "And he heard you??

Kierra nodded.

"Well, I think I can understand now why he uh, doesn't like you...but still, he's a teacher, he's supposed to put his biases aside when he teaches" Remus said, as they joined Sirius and Peter at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey Moony, full moon's tomorrow, isn't it?" Peter asked.

Remus sighed and nodded. "which means I'll be missing astronomy...I'm gonna need to borrow someone's notes for that class, if that's alright..."

"of course," Sirius said, "you can borrow mine..."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Sirius, you know you actually have to take notes in order for me to borrow them, right?"

"I'll take notes, don't worry!" Sirius replied impatiently.

"I think he means written notes, Padfoot, not mental notes..." James said with a grin.

"How thick do you all think I am??" Sirius asked irritably, "think I'm illiterate, do ya? that I can't write??"

Remus grinned. "Well, you are the one who always says you can't be bothered with writing rubbish..."

"You can borrow mine, Remus" Kierra said.

"Ah, yes...borrow hers, Moony...she always takes careful notes," James said, "and...if you look carefully, you might be able to find your initials with hearts around them—oww!!" James rubbed his arm in the place where Kierra had pinched him.

Remus laughed. "Really?"

Kierra blushed. Luckily, she was spared from answering, as Dominique, Lily and Alice had just entered the great hall and were waving to her.

"Well," Kierra said as they finished their lunch, "I am determined to do good on this essay for Potions"—

"you mean you're determined to do well?" Remus corrected her.

Kierra rolled her eyes as she pulled out a clean roll of parchment and a bottle of ink. "You just be glad that you're cute," Kierra said, not looking up from her work, "I normally don't take kindly to smart arses..."

"Damn, Nakofsky..." James laughed, thrusting his hand forward, making whipping noises.

Remus smiled and turned back to finishing his lunch. As he took a sip of pumpkin juice from his goblet, he glanced at Dominique, who was chatting with Lily and Alice...

Over the past few weeks since they had gotten back from vacation, Dominique had changed. She acted more or less the same, but she looked a little different...she looked more tired...more stressed out...what could possibly be bothering her?

Suddenly Remus remembered the offhand comment that Sirius had made last night in their dormitory.

"Ahh...February 14th!! Only a week away!" James said excitedly, "Coincides perfectly with our next Hogsmeade trip..."

"Yea, and you better not stick Dominique in your ear for this one," Sirius warned, "I'm taking her out..."

James laughed. "Don't worry, mate. I can manage Lily on my own now. Hey, maybe we can do a double...er...triple date?" James asked, remembering that Remus had a girlfriend too.

"Hey that sounds like fun"—

"No," Sirius said quickly, "I mean, you guys can if you want to...but, I want to be alone with Dominique"—

"hah..say no more, Padfoot!" James said with a sly grin.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I didn't mean like that...I meant...well, exactly what I said..I want to be alone with her...catch up, and stuff..."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked.

"I dunno...I feel like I'm losing her...she's becoming more distant...maybe she doesn't like me anymore..."

James snorted. "Girls never lose interest in you...it's always the other way around!"

"Well..." Sirius said slowly, as if he did not want to admit what he was about to say, "whenever we're alone, she seems to get kind of tense...and actually that's hardly ever now...I mean, heaven forbid, I might kiss her if we're alone..."

"Isn't that how she acted when you guys first started dating?" Remus asked, "kind of scared?"

Sirius paused for a moment to consider the matter. "Yes, I suppose...but back then, she at least liked being around me...it doesn't seem like that anymore..." Sirius said with a sigh. "Well, I'm gonna plan a long, romantic date with her, try to soften her up...and then confront her maybe...or get her to talk..."

"Oyy, REMUS!!"

Remus snapped back into present day and glanced at James.  
"Er..sorry, what?" he asked.

"Just wanted to know if you were gonna finish your cupcake..." James said.

"Ah...you can have it," Remus said, passing the cupcake to James, "you know I don't like anything that hasn't got chocolate in it..."

"Exactly why I asked." James said with a grin, as he devoured he cupcake in one bite.

"Done!!!" Kierra exclaimed, dropping her quill onto the table. "There is no way Keifer can fail me this time...18 inches...6 more than what he asked for...and if that doesn't impress him...ooh, I forgot to date it..." Kierra muttered as she pulled her ink bottle out again and dipped her quill in it. "February...er, what day is today?"

"Why don't you check your underwear?" Sirius said nonchalantly.

"What??" Kierra asked at once. "What are you"—Kierra stopped when it hit her.

"Ohhh...fckity fck..." Sirius muttered when he saw the look of comprehension on Kierra's face.

She quickly turned to Remus, who looked at her a bit anxiously.

"Kierra...um"—

"You told him?? You told him about my underwear?!?"

"Kierra, there's people here"—

"I can't believe you'd tell your friends about what I wear"—Kierra stopped as Remus's words registered in her head. She glanced up, only to notice that several dozen students had stopped eating their lunch to listen to her outburst.

Kierra picked up her bag and grabbed her potions essay...and now everyone could see her blushing furiously...great...

"Don't even follow me," Kierra said as she stalked past Remus, "I don't want to look at you."

"May I sit?"

Kierra looked up from her book. "Go away, Sirius..."

Sirius pulled a chair and sat across from Kierra at the table in the library.

"Hey, I'm sorry about...well, what happened at lunch..."

Kierra sighed as she put her book down. "It's not you who should be sorry"—

"Remus is looking for you...he feels horrible..."

"Good. He should..."

Sirius rolled his eyes and leaned forward closer to Kierra. "You know when we were at his house, and we were all outside?"

Kierra looked up at him to show that he had her attention.

"Well," he continued, "I sort of...asked about...how it went..."

"How what went?"

Sirius sighed exasperatedly.

"oooh"—

"yea, anyway he refused to say anything, even though I assured him that you were across the street with Dominique, telling her every last detail...he said he thought you'd mind, and he didn't want to betray you"—

"I didn't tell D everything! Wait, he said that??" Kierra asked.

"Yea...he just let that one little thing slip...he looked pretty regretful when he said it though..."

"Really?"

Sirius nodded. "He's probably up in our dormitory...full moon's tomorrow and he's not feeling too well either...go see him."

Kierra nodded and got up to leave. "I think I will. Thanks Sirius."

"Anytime...er, what'd I do?"

"For reminding me how wonderful Remus is..." Kierra said as she stalked off.

"Ah...of course!" Sirius called after her, only to receive a glare from Madam Pince, warning him to be quiet.

"Er...Remus? Can we talk?"

Remus looked up, slightly startled. "Yea, sure...sit down..."

"Uh...could we go somewhere...more private? Is there anyone in your room?"

Remus shook his head. "I don't think so...let's go..." he said as he led Dominique up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.

Once inside, and Remus had shut the door, he looked at Dominique apprehensively. "So...what's up?" he asked.

Dominique sighed. "Oh Remus...these past few weeks...I think...maybe..." she sighed again, shutting her eyes in frustration.

Remus took her by the hand and led her to his bed, gently seating her next to him. "It's alright..." he said quietly, stroking her hand.

Dominique opened her eyes, to show that they were glassy with tears. She took a deep breath and looked straight at Remus. "I think I'm pregnant."

"What??" Remus asked at once. "You're...pregnant??" he asked, nearly choking on the words. "Are you sure?? When did you"—

"I'm pretty sure..." Dominique said, looking at the floor.

"Sirius doesn't know, does he?"

Dominique shook her head. "No one does, except you...and please don't tell anyone..."

"Dominique, you have to tell him"—

"I know! I will....when I think he's ready to hear..."

Remus nodded. "Well...what are you gonna do now?"

Dominique sniffed. "Oh, Remus...I don't know what I'm going to do...I never thought this would happen to me...I just got so carried away with Sirius...how could I have been so stupid?? So thoughtless...." she let the tears flow freely down her cheeks. "I'm scared as hell..."

"It's ok to be..." Remus said quietly as he hugged Dominique. "You've got every right to be scared..." he said as he rubbed her back while she sobbed. "But just remember, whatever happens, you're gonna have your friends' support, and your boyfriends'."

"What if they don't"—

"Well, you'll have me..." Remus said, planting a kiss on her head and hugging her tightly.

Kierra ran up the steps to the boys' dormitory.

"Hey, girls aren't allowed up there!!" she heard a 2nd year named Ichabad Foster shout from the foot of the stairs.

"Oh, piss off..." She muttered as she climbed the stairs, two at a time. Kierra had finally reached the door and swung it open. "Remus, I'm sorry I"—

Kierra stopped at the sight in front of her. Remus was holding Dominique, murmuring something to her. "Uh"—

"Sorry..." Dominique said quickly as she got up. "I'll um...I'll just see you guys later..." she muttered as she bolted out the door.

"Er...what was that about?" Kierra asked.

"Did you say you were sorry?" Remus asked quickly, smiling at Kierra in hopes of changing the subject.

"Er, yea...I am...I had a talk with Sirius...he told me you said that stuff on accident..."

"I'm sorry I did though..." Remus said. "So we're ok?"

Kierra smiled. "Yea, we're ok...So, what's with Dominique? Why'd she come up here?"

"Oh...it was nothing..."

"But she looked weird...she was all pale and"—

"Just not feeling well," Remus said quickly, "that's all..."

Kierra narrowed her eyes at Remus. "Then why were you holding her, and...and...whispering...little...sweet nothings to her??" Kierra spat.

"What?? No I wasn't!!" Remus snapped.

"Then??"

"Then nothing!! She's my friend, can't a guy talk to his friend??"

"Fine...talk to her...as much as you want..." she said as she stomped away.

"Kierra"—

"You know, if you like snuggling with her so much, why don't you just date her?!" she shouted as she slammed the door behind her.

"So...you and me...Hogsmead next week?" James asked.

"Yep...but only," Lily said with a grin, "if you promise not to bring Dominique along this time."

James laughed with Lily. "It's a deal..."

"It's a date!" Lily corrected him.

James smiled and kissed Lily on the forehead. "You are so cute...did I ever tell you that?"

"yea, a few...dozen times...but I don't get tired of hearing it..." Lily said with a grin.

"Good, because there's plenty more to be had" he said as he leaned in to kiss her.

"Geez Prongs, get a room!"

James and Lily pulled away from each other immediately, only to see Sirius and Peter approaching them with grins.

"Er, sorry about that...the sight of you two together...still trying to get over the shocks..." Sirius muttered.

"Haha...very funny..." James replied, "ay, Kierra! What's eating you?" he asked, looking past Peter and Sirius, at Kierra, who was walking toward them with a heavy frown.

"Did you find Remus?" Sirius asked.

Kierra shrugged. "Oh, I found him all right...he was a bit busy though..."

"Doing what?"

"He was up in the dormitory with Dominique..."

"Oh come off it, Kierra, they're friends!" Lily interjected.

"He was hugging her!!"

"But"—

"And talking quietly to her"—

"Well"—

"and when I came in, she just left without saying anything to me...and Remus wouldn't tell me either!"

"Kierra, don't you think you're overreacting just a little"—

"Wait, so he was hugging her??" Sirius interrupted.

"Yea...they were sitting on his bed"—

"HIS bed?? They were holding each other, telling each other little secrets on HIS bed??" Sirius bellowed.

"Ok, calm down, the both of you!" James exclaimed. Lily, Sirius and Kierra all looked at him with surprise. "Look you guys, you both know very well that Remus and Dominique are good friends, so get over it...they were probably confiding"—

"Why can't she tell me? I'm her boyfriend!" Sirius barked. "I bet this is what all her funny business is about...she likes Remus and wants to"—

"Sirius, you've been going out with her for a year...she's known Remus her whole life...of course she's going to trust him more...no offense mate...and same goes with you Kierra," James said, turning to Kierra, "you two haven't been going out very long either...about a month..."

"Alright, we get it..." Kierra muttered.

"Good...just think about what I said..."

"Ok dad..." Kierra replied sarcastically.

"You know, you're really cute when you get all authoritative..." Lily commented.

"Really?" James asked, his ears going slightly pink.

"Yea...really..." Lily said with a grin. "Very refreshing to know that you can be more mature than them..."

"Yea..." James murmured dazedly as Lily pulled him close to her, "I can be mature..."

"Ugh, you guys are so...cheesily...romantic..." Kierra muttered with a slight hint of a smile.

An hour later, Kierra stepped out of the Gryffindor common room. She had been looking for Remus, or at least Dominique, only to be unsuccessful in finding either of them. Kierra sighed as she walked down the staircase; maybe she'd find Remus in the library—

'Oh damn...' Kierra thought irritably as the staircase decided to shift. "Who the hell designed this castle anyway??" she muttered out loud. She quickly got off of the stairs when it came to a halt, and hurried down the dark corridor. Several minutes later, Kierra began to regret that she had stepped off the staircase.

'Where the hell am I?' she thought. 'Must be near the dungeons...which means'—

"What do you think you're doing down here?" came a drawl from behind her. Kierra wheeled around, only to find Lucius Malfoy standing in front of her.

"I can walk wherever I please, Malfoy..." Kierra said defiantly, hoping she sounded brave, when in reality she was feeling a bit nervous...she had forgotten her wand in her room and was certainly not very good at wandless magic.

"You really think you have that privilege, Nakofsky?" Lucius asked, taking a step towards her. "What's wrong? Not feeling as brave without your friends by your side?" he sneered as Kierra took a step away from him.

"Accio..."

Lucius's incantation was followed by a short silence. At last, he smiled. "What?" he laughed, "You mean to tell me you don't carry your wand with you? Well, this'll be easier than I thought"—

"What'll be easier?" Kierra asked nervously as she backed away further, only to back up into the wall. 'ooh...this can't be good...'she thought anxiously as Lucius grasped her by the wrists. "Let me go"—

"Shut up! You"—

Kierra struggled against him. "What the hell is your deal?? I thought I was a filthy muggle-loving half blood...surely I'm not...pure enough for you..." she spat as she attempted to kick him in the crotch as she did a month before.

Lucius however put a leg-locking curse on her and smiled. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I'm not a fool, you know"—

"Er, yea you are"—

"and of course you're not pure enough for me...but you are a pretty little thing...quite a shame to see pretty things go to waste"—

"Go to waste??"

"Yes...aside from the fact that your blood is tainted, you're also quite talentless and pathetic...I don't even understand how you got into NEWT level classes..what'd you do, sleep with the exam proctors"—

"IF I'M SO BLOODY TAINTED WHY DON'T YOU GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME"—

Kierra moaned in pain as Lucius struck her across the face.

"Don't raise your voice at me, girl."

"You coward..." she breathed as she felt her face burn from where Lucius had hit her. She looked at his hand, only to see the he bore several rings, one which held the Slytherin emblem; it had very jagged edges.

"I'm not a coward. I'm simply putting you in your place"— he said as he shoved her onto the floor. The leg bind Kierra was in was still in place, so she toppled over, hitting the stone ground with a loud thud.

Lucius stared at her for a moment. Slowly, a large smile grew across his face. "And what better way to emphasize my superiority than to...yes...oh this is wonderful...."

"What"—

"I'm gonna teach you a little lesson, Nakofsky"—

"Leave me alone!! What have I ever done to you?"

"Everything! You've irked me since our first year, the little brat that you are...and then, there you go, you get on the quidditch field, for one game"—

"This is what this all about?? You are the sorest loser I have EVER seen...you're pathetic!!"

"I could never forgive myself if I left this school without humiliating you...and this...." He said with a laugh as he pulled her up and pushed her against the wall, "this is the ultimate way of humiliating you...ah, gosh, and I'm sure your half-blooded bookworm of a boyfriend will be devastated...oh, I love getting two birds with one stone..."

"Well, you assumed wrongly...he won't be nearly as hurt as you think..."

"Oh, I'm sure he would be"—

Lucius stopped in mid-sentence. He turned around just in time to see a jet of red light streaming towards him. He made to duck; but too late...

"You wound me, Kierra..."

Kierra turned around to see Remus, pointing his wand at Lucius, who was sprawled against the floor, moaning in pain.

"Remus..." Kierra breathed.

"And to think...Lucius had more faith in me than you...." He muttered. "And you..." he snarled, turning to Lucius, "if you ever so much as speak to my girlfriend, I will personally hex you into oblivion...you understand??"

Lucius only glared at Remus.

"I said...do..you..understand?!"

Kierra back away slightly from Remus, quite startled by him. She had never even seen him angry before.

"She's not even worth looking at..." Lucius muttered as he got up and stalked away, glancing back at Remus every few seconds to make sure he wasn't being tailed.

"Remus...thanks..." Kierra said, as Lucius disappeared around the corner.

"How could you think I don't care about you? And...what's that one your face?? What'd he do to you??" Remus asked at once when he saw the gash on Kierra's face.

"Oh, he smacked me"—

"WHAT?! That bloody coward!! I'll"—

"You won't do anything...just leave it. We're just lucky a professor didn't come along..."

"Why? He'd probably have gotten expelled"—

"And so would you! You used an unforgiveable!!"

Remus shrugged. "For what it was worth...I was willing to do it..."

"Dominique!! Wait up!!" Sirius called after her.

Dominique turned around and smiled slightly at Sirius. "Hey..."

"Listen, you're going to be free next week when we go to Hogsmead, right? It'll be Valentine's Day..and I've got a nice, romantic date planned..."

"Sounds wonderful. I'll be there..." Dominique said with a smile.

"Excellent..." Sirius replied. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two, before Sirius decided to speak up again. "Dominique, is everything ok with you? I mean...I've got this feeling that something's wrong..."

Dominique sighed. He'll have to know, sooner or later... "Yea...Sirius, I need to talk to you about something..."

Suddenly, James burst into the common room, followed by Peter, Lily, Remus, Kierra and Alice.

"You guys won't believe what happened to Kierra!!" James huffed. "Incredible...the nerve of that guy"—

"Who?" Dominique asked at once.

"Lucius Malfoy"—

"What??" Sirius exclaimed.

"Shut up guys, let me explain! Er wait...Kierra, you explain, it happened to you..." James said. Kierra sighed and recounted the entire incident to Sirius and Dominique.

"He HIT you??? What a little"—

"Yea, I know!!" James exclaimed. "And we're gonna show that ferret face"—

"Remus already did!" Kierra interjected pleadingly. "Guys come on, there's no need to interfere"—

"He could've done something horrible to you!!" James exclaimed, "I mean, he already did...he could've done worse...he could've...violated you, or something..."

"I think an ass whooping is definitely in order!" said Sirius. "All those in favor of seeing Malfoy getting his butt kicked, say ay!"

"AY!!" everyone but Kierra said together.

"Guys"—

"So what do we do to him?" Peter asked.

"Well...the wheels in my head have been turning," James began,

"that can't be good..." Kierra muttered.

"Now, it's nearly dinner time...Padfoot...Moony...Wormtail...I think it's time we put our connections with the house elves to some use..."

"Master James knows he is not supposed to be here when the house elves is preparing dinner!" said a little elf in a pink apron.

"Yea, I know Arala...but I just wanted to make this special request...it's really important," James said, pulling out a small vial from his pocket, "think you could put this in Mr. Lucius Malfoy's plate?"

"What is it?"

"A present for him...he uh...did me a favor, and I wanted to return it..."

"What's in the vile?"

"Just a potion...to put him in better spirits...he's been a bit...grumpy lately..."

Arala smiled and took the vile. "Master James is a very good friend. Arala will see that this is put in master's friend's plate.

"Ah, thank you Arala...you're the best! Ooh any chance you've got some leftovers from yesterday's din"—

"Come on, Potter..." Lily said, pulling James out of the kitchen, followed by the others. "I can't believe she believed you...a friend...to Malfoy?"

"What can I say? I've got this charm with the ladies..." James said with a grin.

"Oh yes, absolutely...you worked those charms on me, and BAM, five years later, you had me..." Lily replied sarcastically, though she smiled back at James.

"Yea, well, you're a special case..." James replied with a frown.

"and you're a nut case," Lily said, "so what exactly does that little bit of potion do?"

"Oh, you'll see...come on, let's get to the great hall...I don't want to miss it!" James said excitedly, leading the gang to the great hall.

Soon enough, Lucius Malfoy appeared in the great hall, surrounded by his cronies; Crabbe, Goyle, and Snape. As they took their seats at the Slytherin table, Malfoy glanced towards them, staring angrily at Kierra for a few moments before turning to his dinner.

"Soon as he swallows and it gets into his system..." James whispered eagerly, "ah....here it comes"—

A loud eruption could be heard from the Slytherin table, which was followed by laughter from the entire great hall. Many of the students had turned to the Slytherin table to see who caused the noise.

"hey who cut the cheese??" Frank Longbottom asked incredulously, trying to stifle a laugh.

Just then, the same loud noise came again, and Lucius Malfoy sat frozen in his seat, while the some of the Slytherins looked at him amusedly, while others were sniffing the air around him and quickly backing away from him.

"Having gastronomical problems, eh, Malfoy??" James laughed.

Lucius stood up immediately and stormed towards Kierra. "Nakofsky!!" he snarled, "you little"—(he farted again...the great hall again erupted with laughter) "you are going to pay dearly for this!!"

"Hey, if you're going to show gratitude to anyone, it should be me!!" James said proudly.

"Potter"—

"Yea...don't touch what you can't have, near our Kierra ever again, and I'll—

"Mr. Potter!!!"

"Oh, shit..." James muttered, as he turned around to face Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore.

"Professor, I"—

"Come with me to my office, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said, "and you, Mr. Malfoy...and I have this feeling that I need to ask all of you to come with me..." he added, eyeing the girls and the marauders.

"No...just me," Kierra said, "the rest of them didn't do anything..."

"But we knew about it!" Lily said with a frown.

"Come along now, all of you..." Professor Dumbledore said as he walked out of the great hall.

"Oh man..." James muttered, "I've gotten in trouble with just about every staff member in this school, except for Dumbledore..."

"I've never been in trouble in my life..." Lily said worriedly. "What're my parents going to think??"

"Bet Regalus the perfect is writing my parents this very moment..." Sirius remarked coolly.

"Alright," Dumbledore said with a sigh as he took his seat behind his desk. "Who did this to Mr. Malfoy?"

"I did, sir." James answered, "but I did it because I wanted to get back at him, he hurt Kierra, sir..."

Dumbledore turned to Lucius. "Is this true?"

"No"—

"Mr. Malfoy, I will ask you again. Is this true?"

Lucius sighed. "Yes."

"Great Scot...is that my great-great grandson??" came a voice from the wall.

"Yes, Phineas, it is..." Dumbledore replied without turning around to face the portrait.

"Well, Mr. Sirius Black...what do you think you're doing here in the headmaster's office?? Up to no good? Just as your parents suspected!"

"That's enough, Phineas," Dumbledore said, putting a hand up to silence the portrait. "Now, did the rest of you have any other part in this, aside from knowing about Mr. Potter's plan for revenge?"

They all shook their heads.

"Well then, off with you all. Except Kierra, Lucius and James...the rest of you may go."

Lucius stared after the group incredulously as they left. "WAIT!! What about Remus??"

Everyone froze.

"What about me?"

"Yes, what about Mr. Lupin?"

"He performed the crutacius curse on me"—

There was a sharp intake of breath from Kierra. That snitch. He was determined to take as many down with him as possible.

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes at Remus. "Is this true, Mr. Lupin?"

Remus frowned and stared at the floor as he nodded.

"Very well, you stay too. The rest of you...wait...Dominique..."

Dumbledore stared curiously at his niece for several seconds before shaking his head. "Nevermind, you go too" he said, still eyeing Dominique.

"Yes, sir" she replied as she followed her friends out. 'oh God...he knows...he knows something....' She thought anxiously.

"Well," Dumbledore said, as heard the door shut, "someone please explain from the beginning..."

"I found Kierra lurking around the dungeons sir," Lucius started at once, "where our common room is, as you know...thought it was odd to see a Gryffindor down there....so I"—

"I wasn't lurking!" Kierra protested, "I got lost because of the dumb staircase! Anyway, it's not like I'm not allowed down there, I wasn't in the common room...hell, I wasn't even looking for it!"

"Your language, Miss Nakofsky"—

"Oh, sorry, sir..."

"Kierra, Professor McGonagall had once boasted to me that honesty was one of your finer qualities. Could you tell me honestly, what happened, from start to finish?"

"Professor McGonagall really said that?" Kierra asked with a hopeful smile, which disappeared when Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at her.

"Er..sorry...yea I can tell you honestly what happened. I was coming from the Gryffindor common room, I had decided to go to the library, to look for Remus. Anyway, the staircase changed positions, and I got off as soon as it stopped moving...because, well..I get motion sickness," she said sheepishly, glancing at Dumbledore, who nodded to her for her to continue.

"Anyway, I didn't even know where I was, I figured I was near the Slytherin dungeons...but that wasn't really my concern. Then Lucius came out of nowhere and asked me what I was doing there. I told him I could walk wherever I wanted, and he said I didn't have the privilege..." Kierra sighed and took a deep breath. "he tried to disarm me, but I didn't have my wand on me...and then he grabbed me by the wrists...and then...he hit me..."

"On the face?" Dumbledore asked, indicating at the gash on Kierra's cheek.

"yea...and then he put a leg-locker on me...because I tried to kick him...and then he pushed me onto the ground...and then he pulled me back up and pushed me against the wall"—

"May I ask if there was any exchange of words between you two, during this?"

"Yes, of course...we argued...but I thought some of the stuff said is a bit...too crude..for me to bring up."

"Alright, continue then..."

"Well, that's when Remus came...or...maybe he came earlier...I don't know...but that's when he hit Lucius with the curse..."

"How much of their interaction did you see, Remus?" Dumbledore asked.

"just a couple of seconds..I had heard them from down the hall...I heard him saying he wanted to"—Remus paused and glanced at Kierra, who looked thoroughly pained to rehear what Lucius said... "I heard him yelling at someone...when I saw it was Kierra...and he had pushed her against the wall, I pulled my wand out and cursed him..."

"And when we found our friends, we told them what happened...I mean...they noticed the cut on my face...so I had to tell them...and they were all angry, and wanted to get back at him..."

"Kierra didn't want us to though," James piped up, "she really didn't...but I kept insisting...I'm sorry sir, but we just couldn't stand to see Kierra get hurt. And please...don't send Remus to Azkaban...he was just trying to protect her...it could've been a lot worse...ow.."

Kierra pinched James.

"Is there something you wish to tell me, Miss Nakofsky?"

"No, sir..." she said quickly.

Dumbledore sighed. "Well, I'll be writing to all of your parents...except yours, Kierra...I do not see that you've done anything wrong....unless, you'd like me to, to explain wha happened?"

Kierra shook her head vigorously.

"Alright, they won't be getting any letters...and you all, minus Kierra, will be receiving detention...I'll ask Professor McGonagall to see to that That'll be all. Mr. Malfoy, you may go now."

"Wait, aren't you going to the ministry? They're supposed to know if someone uses the unforgivable curses"—

"Thank you Mr. Malfoy, I'm aware of that. That was actually what I was going to talk to Mr. Lupin about. So if you will?" Dumbledore requested, pointing to the door. Lucius nodded and left.

"Professor, you can't!" James exclaimed, "please, you just can't"—

"Calm yourself, James...I have no intention of reporting this to the ministry.

"Really??" Remus and James said at once.

"Normally, I would...but...as the circumstances are...as the majority of the wizengamot is prejudiced against werewolves...I cannot throw you into the hands of people who will most likely be treating you unjustly. Now...I know all of you are well intentioned young men, and woman, I must ask you to be careful around...certain students...is that understood?

"yes, sir." The three said together.

"Well then, off with you."

"I can't believe he was so easy on us..." James exclaimed as they left.

"Yea I know...he could've sent me to the ministry..." Remus said with a frown.

"What would they have done?" Kierra asked. "Had they tried you and everything..?"

Remus gulped. "I read in the daily prophet a few years ago, some werewolf got executed for stealing...man...and I used an unforgivable...they'd probably send me straight to the dementors..." he said with a shudder.

"Oh God..." Kierra murmured, as she clutched tightly to Remus's arm.

"We're really lucky to be going to school under Dumbledore's headship..." James said.


	26. Chapter 26: Mischief Managed

Chapter 26: Mischief Managed

"How are you feeling, Remus?" Kierra asked as they ambled through Hogsmead several days later. The full moon had come and gone a few nights ago, leaving Remus feeling quite pallid and weak.

"Much better," Remus replied as he walked along the dirt road with Kierra's help, "though I could do with some chocolate...let's go to Honeydukes first..."

"Sure thing—oy—D! Sirius!" Kierra called after the couple who had just passed by them.

Sirius and Dominique stopped and turned around to wave at Kierra and Remus.

"Hey guys!" Sirius said cheerily.

"How're you feeling, Remus?" Dominique asked.

"Never better..." he replied wearily, "Where are you two off to?"

"Petit Ciel" Sirius replied, "Dominique picked it out..."

Remus looked at Dominique and raised an eyebrow questioningly at her. "Ah...that's a ritzy little place...today must be a special day for you guys then..."

"Er, it's Valentine's day, Moony..." Sirius replied.

"Oh...right..." Remus frowned, but looked back at Dominique to try again. "So...Valentine's Day...I'm sure you're planning on babying Sirius then, huh, D?" he said, with a slight emphasis on the word 'babying'.

Dominique's eyes widened slightly but she returned a smile at Remus and replied coolly, "I'm certainly gonna try to...if he lets me..."

"Why would I not let you?" Sirius asked with a grin, "I wouldn't dare pass up the chance to get babied by you"—

"Right, let's just go then..." Dominique said, pulling Sirius away, "We'll see you guys later!"

"Remember we're all meeting at the Three Broomsticks at 4!!" Kierra called after them.

"We'll be there!" Dominique shouted back.

"Oy...D...I just remembered, you had something to tell me!" Sirius said as they were showed to a private booth in the restaurant.

"I did??" Dominique asked, trying her best to look surprised.

"Yea! Remember? A few days ago, right before James and everyone came running in to tell us about what Malfoy did to Kierra, you were about to tell me something..." Sirius reminded her.

"Oh, that! Right..."

"Well?"

"Um...ok..." Dominique sighed. "Alright, here goes...um, Sirius...I think...that, um...well...I think..."

"Oh God...no..."

"What?"

"I knew it..."

"What?? You did?? How??"

"You've been so quiet and distant...you hardly even let me touch you anymore...it's been so blatantly obvious...I should've known...oh God..."

"I'm sorry, Sirius...I don't know what else to say"—

"How long?"

"You mean, how long have I"—

"yea..."

"about a month...since we left Remus's house...I started to feel like something was up"—

Sirius nodded. "Well..." he sighed, "I suppose we could still be friends..."

"What?" Dominique asked curtly, "just be friends? Are you being serious??"

Sirius sighed. "You're right...there's no way we can carry on as friends...it'll be too weird..."

"Right"—

"So...I guess we'll just end everything here"—

"What??" Dominique bellowed. "You wanna just end it here?? Like that?? At a time like this?! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!!!"

"ME??" Sirius retorted, "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WANTS TO BREAK UP WITH ME!!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? WHY WOULD I WANT TO BREAK UP WITH YOU WHEN I'M HAVING YOUR BABY?!?"

Dominique's statement was followed by pin drop silence.

"My...my...baby?" Sirius finally stammered, "You're...pregnant?"

Dominique nodded as she watched Sirius apprehensively.

"Oh, good God...you're pregnant...how? How did you...how? How???"

"Sirius..."

"Oh...right...oh, God...I'm pregnant...no...you are...my baby...our baby...this isn't happening..." Sirius muttered.

"It is, I'm afraid..." Dominique said. "Are you ok?"

"...and you've known since beginning of January?"

Dominique nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier...I just wanted to be sure..."

"And you're sure now?"

"Well...not 100%...I mean, it can only be known for certain if I go see a healer and get checked out...or I could just wait a few months and see if my belly expands, of course..."

"So...go see a healer! What have you been waiting for??"

Dominique frowned. "Well, to begin with...I have no idea where St. Mungo's is...secondly, I didn't want to risk any more trouble in trying to leave Hogwarts to go find it..."

"Wait! Just go see Madam Pomfrey!" Sirius offered.

"Are you crazy?? She'll tell Dumbledore! And what if there are other people in the hospital wing? I haven't even told my friends yet, I mean, with the exception of Remus, of course, and I'm not ready for the rest of the school to know before them"—

"Wait, wait, wait...back up a second...Remus knows??"

"Er..."

"Is that why you two were up in our dormitory a few days ago?"

"How'd you know about that?" Dominique asked.

"Kierra walked in on you guys..."

"Oh...right...yea, I was telling him then..."

"So...why exactly does he get to know before me??"

"Sirius, I was scared...I was afraid of how you'd react...but I had to tell someone...Remus is my good friend"—

"Yes, that's long been established...Remus is your best friend in the whole wide world..." Sirius said dryly.

"Can we get back on subject here??" Dominque asked irritably.

Sirius sighed. "Right...well, what the hell are we going to do now, if you're too scared to see"—

"I'm not scared!!" Dominique retorted. "I just don't want my reputation tarnished! Anyway, listen, we've got more pressing things to deal with."

"Such as?"

"Such as...are you going to be involved with this or not?"

"Of course I am!! How could you think otherwise?"

"Just making sure..." Dominique replied.

"Dominique, wait...you said you've been suspicious since January?"

"yea.."

"So then..." Sirius paused to count on his fingers, "you'll have it September then...so...I have...four months after we're out of here to get a job...I mean, I don't see my parents helping me out here...great...four months to get a job...I suppose I can kiss auror training goodbye...that's three years of unpaid work..."

"I inherited all of my parents' fortune...well, once I leave Hogwarts, I have access to it..." Dominique said quietly, "and it would see us through for quite some time...so...you could still train as an auror..."

Sirius sighed. "We'll see...maybe I can train...and work part time somewhere..."

"Sirius, you don't need to"—

"Of course I do! This is my child, and I have to help take care of him!"

"Him??"

"or her..." Sirius added quickly, "you know, my uncle Alphard, he's about the only one in my family who doesn't hate me...maybe I can work for him"—

"Sirius, I said you don't need to"—

"Yes, I do!"

"Oh would you quit acting so macho??" Dominique snapped, "In the long run, it'll be much better for you to become an auror...and if you get the opportunity to become one, you better not throw it away..."

Sirius sighed. "We'll see..."

There was another long, pregnant (a/n: lol) silence. Finally, Sirius spoke up again.

"So...we're having a baby, huh?"

Dominique nodded glumly. "We're having a baby..."

Suddenly Sirius looked apprehensively at Dominique. "We're going to be parents...I'm going to be a father..."

"And I a mother..."

"I'm not ready for this..."

"Well, we don't have a choice...adoption and abortion are not options..."

"Of course not..." Sirius agreed at once. "I just...I can't believe this," he said as he ran his fingers through his hair...

"I know," Dominique said, frustrated. "This is not how I wanted things to be..."

"Nor I..."

"I mean...I've always wanted kids"—

"Me too..."

"...but...not like this..."

"I know..."

"Not this young..."

"I know..."

"Not out of wedlock..."

"I know—wait, what??" Sirius said abruptly, nearly falling out of his chair.

Dominique glanced at Sirius. "I mean...you know...ideally...I would've wanted to be married before I had children..."

"You wanna get married??"

"What??"

"You wanna to get married!!!" Sirius exclaimed, getting up quickly.

"No, I didn't"—

"I think you needa calm down a little, Dominique...you're moving way too fast...I mean...here you go, throwing a baby at me, and now a wedding ring"—

"I never said I wanted to marry you, you idiot!!" Dominique spat. "And what the hell do you mean, I'm throwing this baby at you?! You're acting like this is my fault!!"

"Well, whose is it?! Are you not the one who told me?? Are you not the one with the uterus??" Sirius bellowed.

"Yea, well maybe if you weren't so exceedingly horny all the time, or you had shown some self control, this wouldn't have happened!! And for your information, Sirius, it takes two people to make a baby, and I guess it's just my rotten luck that I have to have mine with you!!" Dominique shouted as she stood up, tossing her napkin on the table as the maître d' arrived with their food. Dominique threw a glare at Sirius before she stormed off.

"Fine!!" Sirius shouted after her, "Why don't you just go ahead and have it without me then?!"

"Fine!! Maybe I will!!" Dominique shouted back as she swung open the door and left.

"Ugh...go away!!" Kierra whined at the cupids floating over her head, as she dusted confetti off her strawberry scone.

"They are a bit annoying, aren't they?" Remus commented as he glanced above, just in time to receive a fresh gust of confetti in his face.

"Hey...why don't we get this coffee to go, and we'll...go to the park instead?" Kierra asked.

"But it's cold outside..."

"We can keep each other warm..."

"Ahh...well then, let's get a move on..."

As Kierra and Remus stepped out Madam Pudifoot's tea shop, the couple brushed shoulders with another couple that was heading inside the shop.

"What the hell are you doing here?" the man from the latter couple snarled.

Kierra rolled her eyes. "Why do you keep asking that when you always get your butt kicked in the end?"

"I wasn't asking you, Nakofsky," Lucius Malfoy drawled, "I'm talking to your chump boyfriend..."

"What did I tell you about speaking to my girlfriend??" Remus asked, stepping in front of Kierra.

"What's he talking about?"

"Nevermind Narcissa, dear..."

"Ahh, you haven't told her what you did? Well"—

"You should've been sent to Azkaban! Tell me, what did the ministry say when they found out you were...dabbling in the dark arts?" Lucius asked.

Remus stared at Lucius. "Well...I"—

"He didn't go to the ministry" Kierra said, peering around Remus, who looked at her pleadingly, as if to beg her to shut up.

"What?? I knew it! Dumbledore's always favoring little twerps like you"—

"No," Kierra continued, "see, if Remus had gone to the ministry and had a hearing, he'd have to explain everything you did..."

"Lucius, what'd you do??"

"Not now, Narcissa..."

"which includes, of course, your dealings with me...and that, as you know, would probably land you in the train back to your little Malfoy manor...out of Hogwarts forever...at the very least..." Kierra said with a small grin. "So in the end, we decided against taking this whole thing to the ministry..."

Lucius, Narcissa and Remus gaped at her. "I know...hard to believe...Remus saved your butt...don't you hate it when you're indebted to your enemies??" she asked.

"Come along dear..." Lucius muttered as he pulled Narcissa away from Remus and Kierra, though he kept staring at the latter, until they disappeared into the tea shop.

"I can't believe I scared him away..." Kierra commented as they headed into the park. "I made them leave!"

"Forever, with any luck..." Remus replied. "Well...I have to admit, that was pretty good...I especially loved the look on his face when you mentioned his dealings with you...yes, that'd probably conjure up a good patronus if you needed one..."

"Wonder if we should tell Sirius that Malfoy's seeing Narcissa...I know he doesn't care for his family...but maybe he'd want to know..." Kierra said as they walked through the park.

"Yes...but it might put him in a bad mood...he's not keen on talking about, or hearing about his family...I'm sure he'll find out soon enough on his own...it's probably better that way..."

"Well, I—Dominique??"

Remus and Kierra ran over to the park bench and sat next to Dominique, who was crying.

"What's wrong? Did you tell him?" Remus asked.

Dominique nodded as she continued to cry.

"I take it that it didn't go to well?" Remus asked as he put a comforting arm around her.

"Er...what happened?" Kierra asked.

Remus looked from Kierra to Dominique, the latter who sighed.

"I'm pregnant..."

"What?!"

"yea..."

"Who's the...oh...oooh! He didn't take it well?"

"What'd he say?" Remus asked.

Dominique sniffed as she recounted her confession to Sirius.

"What an idiot..." Kierra muttered.

"Look, it was probably just the shock that caused him to act like that...I mean...this is huge...just give him some time to let it all sink in..." Remus said.

Dominique shook her head. "No, he made it clear that I'm on my own..."

"He didn't mean it, D!" Kierra said at once, "like Remus said...he was just shocked..."

"He was mad at me!!" Dominique replied.

"Ok, mad and shocked...he wasn't thinking rationally...seriously, give him time...he'll come around..."

"yea, right..."

"You ought to believe us, Dominique..." Remus said, "Sirius has always been one of my best friends...I know him...he would never abandon you...he's one of the most loyal friends you could ever have...just give him some time..."

"And speaking of the devil..." Kierra said, pointing to a tall boy with black hair, ambling through the woods , hands in his pocket. He was walking a good distance away from the group, and he had not seemed to notice them.

"Oh great...I don't want to see him..." Dominique muttered.

"Fine...but I'm going to talk to him..." Remus said as he got up.

"What? No, Remus don't!" Dominique exclaimed as she attempted to pull Remus back down, to no avail.

"I just want to calm him down...smack some sense into him, that's all..." Remus said as he stalked off.

"Good luck with that..." Dominique muttered as she rested her head against Kierra's shoulder.

"Sirius, there you are!" Remus called after his friend.

"Hey...what are you doing here?"

"Dominique told you, didn't she?"

"Yea...how'd you know? Oh wait...she told you that too, did she? Should've known the first person she'd go crying to would be you..."

"Cut it out, Sirius," Remus said impatiently, "if you ask me, I think you're acting really immature about this"—

"Yea, well, no one's asking you"—

"You have no idea how"—

"No Remus, you have no idea!" Sirius barked, "You have no idea how the hell it feels to be in my shoes! Have you ever impregnated anyone?? Of course you haven't! Are you gonna be a dad?? No"—

"You're right! The only person who'd understand remotely how you feel is Dominique, and the only person who'd remotely understand how she feels right now is you!! Do you know how hard this is for her?? Why'd you have to go and make her cry like that?? She's scared as hell and she thinks she's on her own!!" Remus shouted arbitrarily.

"I didn't mean that..." Sirius said quietly.

"Of course you didn't...you should go tell her that..."

"Right...I should talk to her...where is she?"

"Over at that bench..." Remus answered, pointing to the bench where Kierra and Dominique sat.

"Alright...wish me luck..." and without further adieu, Sirius went to Dominique.

"Hey...." Sirius began as he approached the girls.

"Hey" Kierra and Dominique said together.

"Er..."

"Well, look at the time," Kierra said at once as she stood up, "I better go...I have to...um...see Remus..about...that...thing..." she said quickly as she left, leaving Sirius and Dominique to themselves.

"D, I'm sorry about...how I reacted..." Sirius said as he sat down next to Dominique. "I didn't mean what I said...honest...I want to be there for you the whole way through...that is, if you'll have me..."

Dominique smiled slightly. "Yea, I want you here too..."

"So, we're in this together then..."

"yea..." Dominique replied as she hugged Sirius.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here??" James hissed as he pulled his invisibility cloak off.

"What the hell"—Kierra breathed, "you and your stupid cloak..you scared us!!"

"What are you all doing here??" Alice asked, "Dominique left us a note telling us to meet her in the astronomy tower at midnight"—

"Sirius left us the same note!" Peter said at once.

"And neither of them are here..." Lily commented.

"What's this all about?" James asked.

Remus and Kierra exchanged looks of understanding. "No idea..." Remus answered.

"Prongs, did you bring the map? We can see where they are..." Peter said.

"Ah...no, Remus had it last"—

"And yes, I brought it," Remus said as he pulled the map out of his pocket. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good..." he said as he tapped the sheet of parchment.

Suddenly a map of Hogwarts materialized onto the parchment, only to show that Sirius and Dominique were heading towards the classroom.

"They're coming!" James said, "in 3, 2, 1..."

"Hey guys!" Sirius said cheerily as he entered the classroom, arm in arm with Dominique.

"So...do you plan on explaining why you had us all come up here in the middle of the night?" Alice asked.

"Well, we couldn't meet in the girls' dormitory because boys aren't allowed up there...and well, Kyle and Frank are in our dorm...("er, no offense Alice.." Dominique interjected) and the Gryffindor common room...well, some student might come along...we thought it'd be much easier to have you all come here..." Sirius said.

"To tell us what??" Lily asked.

"Well, Sirius and I have an announcement to make..." Dominique said, with a small smile.

"Oh, ooh...let me guess...you guys are gonna have a baby??" James said with a laugh, causing the others, save Kierra and Remus, to laugh as well.

"Um...actually...yea..." Dominique said slowly. The smiled instantly melted from everyone's faces.

"You...what??" James asked at once.

"A baby...we're having a baby...D's pregnant..." Sirius said.

"Are you sure??" Lily asked anxiously.

"Pretty sure..." Dominique replied.

"Oh, my God..." Alice said. "What are you guys gonna do??"

Sirius shrugged. "Er...have it...and then...raise it?" he said with a smile.

"Sirius, this is serious!!" James cut in, "Seriously now"—

"What? What else are we gonna do??" Sirius said at once, "look, Dominique and I talked things through....there's no point in worrying over it...we'll handle things as they come up"—

"But you guys should be planning ahead!" Lily said, "I mean, what about"—

Lily stopped in mid-sentence as she heard foot steps outside the classroom.

"Oh, crap..." Sirius muttered.

"Quick, everyone under the cloak!" James hissed as he ran behind the large desk at the front of the classroom and motioned for everyone to join him. Within seconds, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Dominique, Kierra, Alice and Lily were all huddling tightly behind the desk; James quickly grabbed his invisibility cloak and threw it on the group, and took cover behind the desk as well, just as the door flew open.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are..." Mr. Filch hissed, "I heard you...Potter...Black—ah...what's this??"

"The map!" Remus mouthed frantically to James. The latter quickly pulled out his wand, and peered out from behind the desk. "Mischief...managed..." he whispered quietly, just as Filch reached down to pick it up. He opened up the parchment and examined it, only to find nothing there.

"Who would leave a battered up piece of parchment lying around here?" he muttered aloud, as he folded up the parchment and stuffed it into his pocket.

"No...not the map..." Sirius murmured as Filch shut the door behind him.

"It's gone...forever..." Peter said gloomily as James removed the cloak from the group.

James sighed. "Our maraudering days are over..."

"You guys, we have that map memorized!" Remus said, "and we're leaving Hogwarts in a few months anyway...it won't be of any use to us..."

"You speak the truth, Moony..." Peter said, "still...it would've been a nice keepsake..."

"Well, we can only hope that Filch saves that map...and some later generation of lawbreakers comes across it..." replied Sirius.

"It would've been nice to pass it on to our kids..." James said sadly, "well..." he added with a smile towards Dominique and Sirius, "we can tell your kid all about it...maybe he or she can carry on our noble work by finding the map..."

Sirius grinned. "Our kid...I like the sound of that."


	27. Chapter 27: Loved and Lost

a/n: about this chapter...each scene is separated by a few weeks time..so sorry if it seems a ...but I kinda want to get through the school year quickly, because ive got a lot of stuff to cover after that n I really wanna get started on it soon ;) poor marauders n friends..they have no idea what's coming...evil grin well, its not too horrible, im ending it so it leads right up to long lost love...newhos..read on..oh yea btw, where the hell are the old school reviewers?? I miss u guys!! tear btw, that puts me in mind, thanks emma so much for reading and reviewing from the very, very beginning!! 'preciate it!! lol newhos, yea I know u all are like jolie, shut up and get on w/ the story... aiight here it is...............oh yea this starts off a few weeks after D's told everyone...lol ok go ahead...

Chapter 27: Loved and Lost

"Guys! Guys!! Guess what??" Lily shouted as she came running through the portrait hole. The marauders and the girls all looked up from their homework as Lily joined them, waving around a letter.

"Hmm let me guess...." James began, rubbing his temples, imitating his divination professor, "I see...I see...your parents have written to you...to tell you...they've seen the grim...and you'll get married to me...and have ten children....oooh," he said, snapping out of his trance and picking up his quill, "I'll use that..."

"James, didn't you say something like that in your last homework assignment?" Peter asked.

"Er...no, not quite...in the last essay, I said that I'll...oh wait...I did say that, didn't I..." James muttered, as he scratched out what he had written, "damn, I hate divination..."

"So what's up, Lily?" Kierra asked.

"My sister Petunia's getting married!" Lily replied excitedly.

"Aww, really?? Congratulations to her!" Dominique said. As she did so, Alice, Kierra and Lily burst into laughter. "What??" she asked.

"You don't know Petunia..." Kierra said with a sour look on her face.

"Yea...we're not very fond of each other," Lily replied, "she thinks I'm a freak..."

"What?? Why??" James asked, looking at Lily curiously. "Why would she say something like that to you?"  
"I'm muggle born...so no one in my family is magic"—

"I know, so what?"

"Well, she hates magic"—

"probably just jealous that she couldn't be a witch too..." Kierra muttered.

"So she hates you for it?" Sirius asked. Lily nodded.

"So why are you all happy about her getting married?" Dominique asked.

"Why?" Lily asked with a grin, "because she'll be leaving then! And...also, I think it's amusing...I met her fiancé over the holidays...Vernon Dursley...hah...I think she was just desperate..."

"Good looking?" Kierra asked. "What??" she asked as Remus had given her a look.

Lily giggled. "He's wider than he is tall...but..." she said, with a trace of guilt on her face, "that's not the point...he's just...really cocky and arrogant...just because he's got some big job at some drilling company...well, they go well together, I suppose...anyway, here's the really good news...my parents wrote saying that the wedding's at the end of May, and I can invite some of my friends...so...."—

"We're invited??" Dominique, Kierra and Alice asked together.

Lily nodded. "And you boys are too".

"Cool! I've never been to a muggle wedding before!!" James exclaimed.

"And," Lily continued, "you guys are welcomed to stay at my house for as long as you want...after the wedding, it's going to be really empty...since Petunia will be leaving...and my parents are touring Europe over the summer...I told them I can't go, since auror training starts in the summer, and I don't want to miss it if I get picked to train..."

"If? Of course you will!" James said at once. "You're one of the most brilliant students in our year! The ministry would have to be pretty thick to not let you in!"

Lily blushed. Before she could open her mouth to reply, Kierra let out a groan. "I don't even want to hear about that...I don't even know why I'm even bothering with trying out...they only pick a few people a year, at the most..."

"Exactly why I'm not bothering," Peter said, "anyway, I got a job offer at Gringotts..."

"Seriously?" Lily asked, looking quite impressed.

"yea...I'll be starting after we leave Hogwarts..." he replied with a small grin.

Remus sighed. "Well, Wormtail, you're lucky you've got something going for you...I don't even know what I'm going to do after graduation..."

"You don't know what you want to do?" Kierra asked.

"Well, being an auror would be cool...but the chances that they'd take on someone who's...well...like me...hell, I don't think there's anyone out there who'd hire me..." Remus said quietly. There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Finally, Lily sighed as she tucked her letter away in her pocket.

"This is ridiculus...all the injustice out there...werewolves...giants...half bloods, muggle borns...you name it...there's prejudice...it's horrible...and now's the worst time to have all this division...what with Voldemort getting more and more powerful...people getting killed all the time...his followers increase by the day..." she said angrily... Everyone around her nodded in agreement; Remus looked at her very gratefully.

"I know..." he said.

"Maybe your dad could help you find something..." Dominique suggested.

"In a publisher's company? I dunno...I'm not really into that... but then again, I probably won't have much of a choice..."

"Aw, Remus, don't be so pessimistic," Sirius said, "you need to have some confidence in yourself"—

"I'm not being pessimistic...I'm being realistic." Remus replied.

"You could go into teaching," Kierra suggested, "You're really smart...and you always explain things really well, you'd be good at it."

"She's right," James said, "and you like kids...you could always talk to Dumbledore"—

"No way." Remus said at once. "He's done too many favors for me"—

"But he wouldn't mind..." Alice said.

"No"—

"It's not like it's a favor...I mean, if a position opens up sometime, you could apply...you'd be qualified..." Sirius said.

"No!"

Everyone stopped immediately and looked nervously at Remus.

"I mean...no..." he said more calmly. "Look, Dumbledore's an excellent man...but he's done so much for me already...I can't keep going back to him for every thing"—

"Remus, you need to swallow your pride..." James said.

Remus glared at him. "Easy for you to say..."

"What?"

"That's all I have, James!" Remus exclaimed as he got up. "If I swallow it, I won't have anything left!" he shouted as he stormed off, climbing the stairs to the boys dormitory.

-

At first, no one spoke. Suddenly Dominique sighed and got up. "I'm gonna go talk to him..."

"Me too..." Lily said, getting up as well.

"Wait, if anyone should be talking to him, it should be his fellow marauders..." James said, getting up as well.

"Yea, he's right..." Sirius said as he and Peter also got up.

"We can't all go up," Dominique said, "he'll feel like we're ganging up on him...just one of us should go"—

"you're absolutely right." James said as he headed towards the stairs, only to be held back by Lily.

"Er, James, what makes you think that you're the only one who can talk to him?"

"Lily, I know you're the sweetest, most wonderful girl in the world, but...I'm better friends with him"—

"I am too!" Sirius started.

"What about me? So am I!" Peter chimed in.

"I've known him the longest, guys...let me..." Dominique said.

"Is there any point in me trying to argue for myself?" Alice asked Kierra.

"I don't think so..." Kierra said, getting up and heading towards the stairs as the rest of her friends argued.

"Look, he's a guy!" Sirius argued, "He needs one of his guy friends"—

"What are you talking about?" Dominique retorted, "you're the ones who are so insensitive...making him mad in the first place..."

"Guys, just shut up and sit down," Alice said, "Kierra already went up to see him..."

"Oh..." everyone said at once as they sat back down.

"Well...she is his girlfriend...I suppose it'd make more sense..." Lily muttered.

--

"Hey..." Kierra said as she stepped inside the boys dormitory. "Can I come in?" Remus, who sat on his bed, cross legged, glanced up momentarily at Kierra before he looked back down and nodded.

Kierra walked across the room and sat next to Remus, putting her arms around him. "You don't have to talk if you don't want to." She said, as she hugged him closer, "I just want to be with you."

After a few moments of silence, Remus sighed as he closed his eyes and leaned against her, hugging her back. "I love you..." he murmured.

---

Twenty minutes later, Kierra and Remus emerged from the boys' dormitory, hand in hand, talking quietly to each other. Though Remus didn't appear incredibly happy, he didn't look too upset either.

"Hey..." he said quietly as he rejoined his friends, "er...sorry about"—

"No need to be sorry, Moony..." James said, "If anyone should be sorry, it's me"—

"No...you didn't mean"—

"It's no one's fault...geez..." Sirius said, not looking up from his book. Remus glanced up at Sirius, but his eyes fell on the title of the book.

"Little wizards and Witches: Baby names from A-Z" Remus read aloud. "You're already looking into baby names?" he asked.

"Sure, why not?" Sirius asked, as he turned the page. "Hey Dominique, what do you think of the name Gary?"

Dominique made a small face. "Eh...I dunno..."

"I'm surprised you don't want to call it Sirius Junior..." James commented with a smirk.

"I did, Dominique didn't like that one either..." Sirius grumbled.

"I just don't think the world is ready for another Sirius, that's all..." Dominique said with a smile.

"Oooh I know a good name for a boy!" James said excitedly, "how about James? And if it's a girl...Jamie!!"

Sirius laughed. "There's an idea...what are you smiling about Evans?" he asked, as he saw Lily smiling distantly.

"Oh...nothing..." she said immediately.

"Aww, come on, tell us!" Alice insisted.

"Well...I was just thinking...of the names I like..." Lily said slowly.

"You've already thought about what you want to name our kids??" James asked incredulously. "Er...I mean your kids..." he added quickly.

Lily blushed as she nodded.

"Well, what are they?" Dominique asked. "I promise I won't steal them..."

"Well," Lily began, "I have a lot of girls names in mind, but if I had a boy, I'd definitely want to name him Harry..." she said with a small smile.

"Harry..." Sirius said to himself... "I like that name..."

"Any particular reason you like that name?" James asked.

Lily shrugged. "I dunno...I just like it...it's cute..."

James nodded. "Hmm...Harry...I like that name too...Harry...Harry Potter...has a nice ring to it!" he laughed as Lily made a face at him.

"Hey, I'll be back." Dominique said as she got up and headed towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Sirius called after her.

"Bathroom..." she replied as she disappeared up the stairs.

"I heard you have to go to the bathroom a lot when you're pregnant..." Kierra said, "is that true? Er, wait...I think that's when you're diabetic..."

James shrugged. "Beats me, I've never been pregnant...it'd be nice to though..." he stopped when he realized everyone was staring at him. "No! I mean, to have a kid..."

"Suure...that's what you meant..." Lily said sarcastically with a grin.

Kierra sighed. "Ehh...I dunno...looks like too much work...and too much pain..."

"Child birth doesn't look that bad..." Sirius muttered as he flipped through the pages.

"Have you even seen it?" Kierra asked.

"Er no"—

"It's hell, trust me..." Kierra replied, "My mum's a healer you know...she actually specializes in deliveries...and I've been with her to work before and seen it, I dunno how women can get those big...watermelons...out of...there..." she said with a shudder.

"But I think it'd be worth it in the end..." Lily said. "I mean, you get to have your own child...you know how rewarding it is?"

Kierra shrugged. "I guess..."

Sirius chuckled. "I feel so sorry for your kids, Kierra...such an unloving mother..."

Kierra grinned. "I'd feel sorry for them too...exactly why I don't want to have kids."

"Yea right..." James muttered, "Watch her have the most out of all of us...oh God, that's a scary thought...15 little Kierras running around...look out world..." he said, causing everyone to laugh, including Kierra.

"No seriously," she said, "I don't want kids...if I ever have the urge to be with one...I'll just uh...play with yours..."

"Seriously??" Remus asked. "You...you really don't want kids??"

"Er...not really..." Kierra said slowly. "Do you?"

"Well, yea...kind of..." he replied.

"Mmm...awkward...." Sirius said as he glanced from Kierra to Remus, picking up his book again to busy himself.

"Oh..." Kierra said, feeling very awkward now. "well..."

"How could you not like kids??" Remus asked.

Kierra sighed. "They're just....such bratty little...ass wipes..." she said, causing Alice and Lily to giggle.

"You used to be a bratty little ass wipe, Kierra...just remember that..." Lily said.

"What're you talking about?" James asked, "she still is! Ow!" he shouted as Kierra hit him on the arm, "I'm kidding!!"

"You can't be serious, Kierra..." Remus said, "I mean...like Lily said...it's a rewarding experience..."

"Well, it's a pleasure I'm willing to forego...I just don't want kids. Period."

"Well...what if I want kids?"

"Er...well...I dunno...If we ever cross that bridge, we'll worry about it then, eh?"

"As in...the bridge of...marriage?" Remus asked slowly.

"Er...yea...I guess..." Kierra replied.

Sirius chuckled as he shut his book. "You think you're not gonna have to worry about babies shooting out of you until you get married?"

"Uh, yea..." Kierra began.

Sirius doubled in laughter. "Kierra, where have you been? Do you not know what's going on with me and Dominique?? Do you not know what book I'm reading right now??"

"Oh..." Kierra said suddenly, as she felt herself blush. Dominique and Sirius were certainly not married...

"Speaking of the devil," Sirius continued, "Wonder what happened to Dominique...she's taking an awfully long time in the bathroom..."

"Maybe it was those beans she had for dinner...I warned her you know..." James said with a laugh.

Sirius frowned as he looked up to see Dominique coming down the stairs.

"D, there you are! What took you so long?" he asked as she slowly made her way to join her friends. She had a pale, distant look about her, and she was frowning slightly. "I have a bunch more baby names I want to tell you about—are you ok?" Sirius asked as he studied Dominique's face.

"baby..."

"er...yea, the baby..." Sirius said, staring at Dominique curiously.

Dominique shook her head slowly and looked at Sirius. "We're not having one..."

It took several seconds for Dominique's words to register. "What??" he asked finally. "What do you mean? Of course we are"—

Dominique shook her head again, but this time looked at the floor. "I was...I was just late...really late."

"Late for what?" James asked, "ooh..." he said quietly when he realized what that meant, and why Dominique was in the bathroom so long.

"Are you sure?" Sirius asked.

Dominique nodded.

"Oh..."

"Well..." James said slowly, after several moments of silence, "this is a good thing for you guys, right? I mean...you guys didn't want to have one anyway...now you don't have to worry..."

Sirius nodded and sighed as closed his books of names and placed it on the table. "Yea...this is a good thing..." he said slowly, forcing the words to come out of his mouth. "I mean...yea, we can just...go back to living normal...no worries...it's a good thing, Dominique...right?" he asked as he took her hands in his own.

Dominique nodded and looked up at Sirius. "It is...it is...I mean...we weren't ready for it anyway...but...I just...feel weird..."

"yea?" Sirius asked as he gently stroked her arm. Dominique nodded again.

"All this time...I was scared...because I had a living thing...growing inside me...and now..."

"It's gone?"

Dominique shook her head. "It was never even there...Why am I so attached to something that never existed?" she asked, as her eyes became glassy with tears. "Why am I so sad..." tears fell freely from her face. "...over something I never wanted..."

Sirius pulled Dominique close to him and hugged her. "I'm asking myself the same thing, D."

----

"Er, what are you doing?" Remus asked Kierra, who was peering through doors as they walked back from the library together, weeks later.

"Looking for an empty classroom!" she said.

"Oh...of course," Remus replied, stilling looking at her curiously. "Because...?"

"Ah, here's one!" she said, opening the door and pulling Remus inside. Kierra quickly shut the door behind her and walked up to Remus. "What to you think I wanna do in an empty classroom with you?" she asked with a grin as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

"mmm, ok..." he murmured as he kissed her back.

Though still glued by the lips, Kierra managed to push Remus along all the way across the room until she had backed him up against the teacher's desk at the front of the room. She then pushed him onto it, and pulled herself on top of him before continuing to kiss him. Remus however pulled away from her slightly and frowned.

"You wanna do it here?" he asked.

"Yes," she said quickly, pulling her wand out to lock the door and put an impediment charm on it, "it'll give us something to think about next time we're in here for Runes..." she added with a grin as she turned back to Remus and leaned in to kiss him; when he suddenly pulled away again.

"I dunno..." he said, still frowning.

"Oh, come on...there are no more classes in here for the rest of the day..." Kierra said hastily, "if we get a move on now"—

"No...I mean..." Remus sighed as he sat up on the desk, pulling Kierra off of him. "Remember with Dominique and Sirius..."

"She's not pregnant"—

"Yes, but she could've been...and you could be too...and well, I'm not ready for that responsibility...and certainly...not with you, if you don't even want to have kids..."

Kierra's mouth fell open. "You mean...you don't want to do it because I don't want kids??"

"No...I mean, it'd be bad enough if I got you pregnant...and the fact that you don't want to be a parent just makes it worse"—

"That sounds like the same thing to me! So...are you trying to punish me or something, for not wanting kids? Is that it??" Kierra asked angrily as she hopped off the desk.

"What?? No! No...I didn't mean it like that...I just want to be careful"—

"Careful??" Kierra sputtered. "Well genius, you should have thought about that before you started to feel me up in your house! I never asked you to!" Kierra couldn't help herself. She had never been turned down before...

"You never asked me to stop, either!" Remus retorted, "And I would've thought about it earlier, had I known about Dominique. Anyway, at least one of us has to be a bit thoughtful"—

"Are you calling me stupid??"

"No"—Remus said quickly, "I just mean...that you're not thinking ahead...and we need to...especially if we have such major differences between us...and if you think it's some kind of punishment, well"—

"I take that back," Kierra snapped, "being deprived of sex with you isn't a punishment at all...quite the contrary." She said as she grabbed her wand and stuffed it into her bag.

Remus stared at her as she stalked away.

"That's not what you said last time!" he called after her as she left the room. 'Did I just say that??' he thought to himself. Why was he acting so immature all of a sudden, when he had been trying to act mature minutes before? 'Stupid ego...' he muttered as he picked up his own book bag and headed out of the class room, "why do guys have such ego problems??"

---

(a/n: just when ya think theyre gonna be happily ever after.... Couldn't keep them together that long, u know...lol evil grin )

--

The following week, Lily and James strolled the grounds of Hogsmead together. Lily closed her eyes and inhaled the fresh scent of spring. She loved this time of the year. Lily however, was soon pulled out of her perfect state when she noticed Remus and Dominique walking down the street together, opposite from herself and James.

"Have you had any luck with Remus?" Lily asked James, indicating at Remus and Dominique.

James sighed and shook his head. "He's still mad at Kierra. I think this whole baby thing has gotten them both wound up..."

"yea," Lily agreed, "and their lack of communication isn't helping the situation, either..."

James nodded. "If only Remus didn't overhear Kierra...he was going to apologize to her too!"

"I know, I know...he just walked in on the wrong moment...had to hear her insulting him...then she feels bad, but he won't have her..."

"Interestingly, they're both calling each other selfish..." James said with a small smile.

Lily rolled her eyes. "I think they're both being selfish..."

"...Which is weird...because those two of all people...I've always seen them both as very obliging and stuff..." James commented.

"I know...and poor Dominique...she seems caught in the middle, they both seem to want her on their side...and they don't even realize, they're making her feel worse...she keeps saying that if she hadn't thought she was pregnant, Remus and Kierra never would've found out about their differences..." Lily said. "Makes them even more selfish, if you ask me..."

"Well," said James, glancing briefly into the window of the quidditch supplies store, "I hope they make up soon...it's getting really annoying...I've never seen Remus act so immature...er actually.." he said, pausing for a moment, "I don't think I've ever seen Remus act immaturely before..."

"That's true...he's usually more adult..." Lily said thoughtfully.

"Well," James said, as he and Lily waved to Alice and Frank, who had just passed by them, "Immaturity doesn't really suit him...Sirius, Peter and I can certainly pull it off, but definitely not Remus..."

Lily laughed. "Well, you're right there...hey," she said, stopping at a store window, "Is that Sirius in there?"

James stepped up to the window and pressed his face closer to it as Lily had done. Sure enough, Sirius was standing inside the shop, talking animatedly to the young witch standing at the counter.

"You don't think..." Lily started slowly.

"Impossible...he can't be..." James said, as he pulled away from the window and headed towards the door of the shop, with Lily at his heels.

"Sirius"— James said as he entered the store with Lily, "what are you doing"—

"James!" Sirius said quickly, backing away from the counter and made to hide his hands behind his back, but too late—Lily gasped as she grabbed Sirius's arm and looked down at him. "No way..." she murmured.

James glanced at Sirius before looking down to see what he had tried to hide. Suddenly his jaw dropped.

"Sirius Fitzwilliam Black...." James murmured, "are you INSANE??"

Sirius smiled slightly. "Just a little..."


	28. Chapter 28: Entrapment

a/n: well, I'm mad...lost a big chunk of my stuff when the site went down!!! ( (on hpff...) never mind that I had to repost the last few chapters of this fic and my other one, that wasn't that big a deal...im just mad about losing all the reviews!!! sobs hysterically ...sniff...newhos...here's the next chapter... oh wait one more thing. lol sorry...just for the sake of convenience, no one's ever in the Gryffindor common room when the marauders n friends are there...(unless otherwise mentioned...) b/c when theyre there, its always during mealtimes when everyones in the great hall, or its late nite and everyone else is asleep...or the weather's beautiful n everyones out...I dunno, take ur pick...lol im a terrible author...making excuses for my deficiencies....ah well....

Chapter 28: Entrapment

James stared at Sirius, who was smiling slightly. "Sirius...you can't be...serious..."

"Course I'm serious!" he said with a grin, "it's my first name!"

James rolled his eyes. "No, seriously, Sirius! I'm being—seri—URGH"—

Sirius laughed. "I've always loved the pun in my name..."

"Sirius!" Lily said sharply. "Can we please be....not funny...for a second?? Are you really gonna do it??" she asked, eyeing Sirius's hand again.

Sirius nodded. "Yea...I've been thinking about it...ever since Dominique....well, ever since we thought she was pregnant"—

"Sirius," James began in a slow voice, as if he were talking to a four year old, "be reasonable...you are seventeen-bloody-years-old....YOU'RE TOO YOUNG!!"

"I'll be eighteen in a month! And I am not too young!!" Sirius protested.

"What if she says no??" Lily asked. "Maybe you're too thick to realize that you're too young, but surely she'll have enough sense"—

"Excuse me," said the young witch who was standing behind the counter, "will you be taking the round diamond or not, Mr. Black? Or did you want another look at the princess cut"—

"He needs some time to think, ma'am." James replied, not looking away from Sirius.

"Yea, I'll take it." Sirius replied, placing the ring that he had tried to hide earlier onto the counter. "Only I want the ring to be platinum not gold."

"Very well," the witch replied, taking the ring back, "I think we have one in our vault. What size is your girlfriend's finger?"

"Er..." Sirius glanced at Lily and James, who were watching him with shock.

"Ok, compare them to my fingers," the witch said, holding out her hand to Sirius, who took her hand and examined it.

"Mmm....her fingers are skinnier...er, no offense"—

"None taken..." the witch said curtly. "So she's less than a size 7..."

Sirius looked back at James and Lily again, and grinned. "Come here, Lily..." he said, pulling Lily to the counter and placing her hand on the counter. "Hmm...what does that look like?" he asked the witch, pointing at Lily's fingers.

"Well, I'd say you're a size 6, Miss."

"Then Dominique's probably a size 5. She's got skinnier fingers than me..." Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Sirius, are you sure you want to do this?? If she says no, you'll just ruin your relationship with her. Have you thought about that?"

"Yes, I have thought of that," Sirius said irritably as he watched the witch disappear into the storeroom, "but I also know that she won't say no..."

"What makes you think that?" Lily asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"She just won't..."

"But Sirius, marriage...it's a huge commitment...how do you know you're both ready for this?" James asked.

"Prongs, Dominique and I thought we were going to have a baby together...we certainly weren't expecting it...but we were ready to handle it together...and I just thought...of how surprisingly disappointing it was...when we realized it wasn't going to happen after all...I just think that if we're feeling like that...we're ready for marriage."

James sighed. "There's no talking you out of it, is there?"

Sirius shook his head.

"Well...get to it then...just...uh...tell us when and where you plan on asking...I want front row seats." James said with a small smile.

-------------------

"This is too weird..." James muttered, as he and Lily left the jewelry shop together.

"I know..." Lily agreed.

"I mean...Sirius and I have been best friends since our first year...and I know we've grown up...and we're adults now...but...I guess it's never really registered in me...he's a grown up too..." James sighed. "It's so hard to let go sometimes..."

Lily giggled. "You sound like a concerned father, James..."

James grinned. "I do, don't I?" Soon his grin faded when he saw who was approaching them. "Shit, Dominique's coming with Kierra...do we say anything??" James asked nervously as he waved to Dominique.

"Of course not!" Lily hissed. "Hey D!! Hey Kierra!!"

"Hey guys! What's—oh, great..." Kierra muttered, looking past Lily and James.

"What?" Lily asked, turning around, only to see Peter and Remus walking towards them. "Oh..."

"Come on Dominique, let's go..." Kierra said as Peter and Remus waved to the group.

"What? No! Honestly Kierra, grow up"—

"Fine..." Kierra grumbled as she stalked off alone.

"Maybe I'll go hang out with her..." Lily said, glancing at James, who nodded to her. "See you guys later..." she muttered as she jogged after Kierra.

"Hey where's Lily going?" Remus asked as he approached the group. "Oh..." he added dully when he saw Kierra stopping to wait for Lily.

There was a short, awkward pause, which was thankfully broken by an all too familiar voice.

"Oy! Prongs! I got it!!" Sirius shouted as he joined the group, patting the front pocket of his jacket.

"Got what?"

"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed; he had not noticed that Dominique was amongst the party. "I er...I got it! I got my jacket fixed up!" he said, patting his pocket again. "Got a little tear in it, and I finally remembered the spell that fixes it...so...yea...I'm happy..." he said quickly and a bit too cheerily. Dominique glanced at him suspiciously for a moment before shrugging it off.

"Hey I'm kinda tired out. I'm gonna head back to the castle...anyone else wanna come?" Remus asked.

"I'm cold..." Dominique said, hugging herself. "Sirius, could I wear your"—

"I'm tired too, Moony, I'll come with you" Sirius said quickly, pretending not to hear Dominique. "Let's go..."

Remus exchanged a look with Dominique before pulling his own jacket off and handing it to her as he left with Sirius.

"What's the matter with him?" Dominique asked as she watched Sirius and Remus leave.

"Well, I dunno where you've been D...but he sort of broke up with Kierra!" James exclaimed.

"Not him, Sirius!!"

"Oh...I dunno..." he lied. "Look, we've got more pressing things to deal with..."

"Such as?"

"Kierra and Remus!" James exclaimed, "they're driving me insane! They can't even be in the same room as each other! It's ridiculous! We need to get them back together!"

Dominique smiled slightly. Her small smile then turned into a large grin.

"Do I sense an idea brewing?" James asked with a tone of hopefulness.

Dominique nodded.

"Well, what's the plan? How do we get them back together?" Peter asked.

"The same way we got them together in the first place" Dominique said with a grin.

"Er...I was unconscious during that whole thing, remember?" Peter reminded them. "What happened?"

"Dominique locked them in a closet together..." James said.

"So you wanna lock them up again?" Peter asked.

"But that was sort of an accident, on the spot thing, D...you were drunk! And how are we supposed to get them to stand next to each other, in front of a closet door? Anyway, they'd probably hex each other"—

"No, no, no...I didn't mean we should lock them up!" Dominique said. "I was talking about the general idea...of just...trapping them..."

"Trap them?" James repeated.

"Yep"

"And uh....er, could you elaborate??" James asked.

"We need to trick them into seeing each other, so they can talk..." Dominique said.

"Ok...and how would we do that?" Peter asked.

"Either of you have a problem with lying?" Dominique asked.

Peter and James looked at each other.

"You want us to lie to Moony about something?" Peter asked.

"I dunno...he's Moony...he's one of our best friends..." James said.

Dominique sighed. "He's one of my best friends too, but I don't mind lying to him to get him back with Kierra...fine, can you at least lie to Kierra without feeling bad?"

James and Peter grinned.

"Lie to Kierra? Sure, I do it all the time!" James said. "Er...nothing big, just little white lies...you know, when I lose something of hers or whatever..." he added quickly as Dominique raised an eyebrow at him.

"Alright, so what do you want us to lie about?" Peter asked.

---------------------------------

"Lovely day, wasn't it?" Dominique said cheerily to Kierra as she joined her for dinner.

"Huh?" she said, looking up at Dominique, "Oh yea...wonderful day...I—hey..." she said, pointing at Dominique's clothes, "is that Remus's jacket you're wearing?"

"Er...yea..."

"Why are you wearing his jacket?" Kierra asked at once.

"Er...when we were in Hogsmead I got cold, so he gave me his jacket. What's the big deal?" Dominique asked as she pulled her borrowed jacket off.

"Nothing" Kierra said quickly, glaring at Dominique as she went back to her dinner.

"Just because you think Remus is a selfish prick, doesn't mean the rest of us think that." Dominique said coolly, as she caught Kierra's glare.

"I never said that!" Kierra snapped, slamming her fork on the table as she stood up.

"Kierra"—

"Oh, shut up..." Kierra muttered, as she stalked away.

"What's gotten into her?" Lily asked, looking away from Alice and Frank as she saw Kierra get up from the table.

"Oh...nothing..." Dominique replied, "just a little high strung..."

Dominique glanced down the table and stared at James and Peter, who were chatting with Sirius and Remus. 'Oh, would one of you just look at me!' Dominique thought impatiently.

Finally, Peter turned around and caught Dominique staring at him. His eyes widened slightly in surprise.

Sighing with relief, Dominique nudged her head in the direction of the great hall door. Peter, in return, only looked at her puzzlingly.

Dominique sighed again. "Kierra..." she mouthed to Peter, still nudging her head towards the door.

Peter suddenly nodded in understanding, as he noticed that Kierra was now missing from the table. He quietly nudged James, who was busy talking to Remus and Sirius about the latest Nimbus model.

"Ow, Peter!" James exclaimed, rubbing his side where Peter had jabbed him.

"Er...sorry, mate..." Peter replied. "Uh...I'm gonna head back to the common room. You wanna come?"

"Huh? Nah, that's alright"— James started, but as he looked up at Peter, he saw him mouthing the word 'now' to him. "Er, actually, yea, I'm not that hungry...um...I'll see you guys later. Bye Moony, Padfoot!" James said quickly as he got up and followed Peter out of the great hall.

James and Peter stepped into the empty Gryffindor common room, only to find Kierra curled up near the fireplace, staring out the window. She suddenly pulled her gaze away from it as the boys entered the room.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked, glancing from James to Peter. They both looked rather anxious. "Everything ok?"

"Yea..." James started slowly, "...no...no, everything's not ok..."

"What's the matter?" Kierra asked.

Peter and James walked across the room and joined Kierra. "Well??" She asked, after several moments of silence.

"Well..." Peter began, "we're just...well...never mind...you won't want to hear about it"—

"Of course I want to hear about it! What's bothering you guys?" Kierra persisted.

"No, Peter's right...you don't want to know. It's about...well...Remus...but...hey, you hate him so we won't burden on Peter, let's just go..." James said, as he started to get up; but Kierra pulled him back down.

"I don't hate him, per say...I just...well, what happened? It's not anything serious, is it?" Kierra asked.

"Well, yea...it is kinda serious..." Peter stated. "We're really worried about him..."

-------------------------------------

"Hey Dominique," Sirius began as he got up from the Gryffindor table, "I'm gonna go look for Peter and Ja"—

"No!" Dominique said at once. Remus, Sirius, Alice, Lily and Frank all looked at her curiously. "I mean...uh...see, they're with Kierra right now..."

"How'd you know? What are they all doing?" Sirius said, "oh wait, Moony, maybe you should go sit in a corner while we talk about her..." he added, rolling his eyes.

Remus only glared at Sirius in return.

"No, this is serious...they went to go see her...because...well...we're worried about her..." Dominique said dramatically.

"What?? Why??" Lily asked immediately, "What happened??"

"Oh...well—oops!!" Dominique exclaimed, as she accidentally-on-purpose flung her hand so her ring would fly off and roll under the table. "Oh, can you get that for me, Remus? Thanks..." she said, as Remus reached under the table to pick up her ring. As he did so, Dominique turned back to her friends and winked at them, nudged her head in Remus's direction and mouthed "play along!!!" to them.

"Er, what??" Remus asked as he got up, looking at his friends strangely, as they were all gaping at Dominique.

"Oh!" Sirius said immediately, snapping out of his gaze and turning to Remus, "just worried..."

"Oh..." Remus replied, handing Dominique's ring back to her.

"Well...what happened??" Alice asked.

-----------------------------------------------------

"Remus is really sick, Kierra..." James said solemnly. "He's not Remus anymore..."

"Er...what?" Kierra asked, uncertainly.

"He's lovesick!" Peter exclaimed.

"What??"

"Over you!" James chimed in. "He's so hung up over losing you, he misses you so much!"

"Well, if he missed me so much, maybe he'd talk to me"—

"He's afraid to..." Peter interjected.

"Why?"

"He thinks that...and might I add, he thought right, that you hate him and won't give him a chance, even if he tried asking..."

"He really thinks that?" Kierra asked, her expression softening slightly.

"Yes," Peter said immediately, "He's just so sulky and depressed. He even murmurs your name in his sleep sometimes..."

"Really?"

"Yea...and when he wakes up in the morning he sometimes has tears in his eyes..." Peter added, only to get a sharp warning look from James, indicating that he might be going a bit too far.

"Wow..." Kierra murmured.

"Yea," James said, realizing that Kierra was buying everything and it was safe to continue, "I've never seen Remus act like this over a girl...and you know, he's dated a lot of girls in the past...no one's ever made him feel so depressed...and he feels horrible about it...he's always blaming himself for everything..."

"I had no idea...."

"Yea..." Peter said, "It's pretty bad...and don't you miss him in the slightest?"

"Well...."

"Forget it, Peter..." James said quietly, "Remus was right, his chances with Kierra are gone. Let's just go"—

"What? No!!" Kierra exclaimed, "I miss him, I really do!"

"Not as much as he misses you, probably." Peter said.

"Excuse me? What makes you think that??" Kierra snapped.

"Well...I dunno...I just thought"—

"I doubt you thought anything..." Kierra interjected. "And for your information, I do miss him too, I love him."  
"Then what are you waiting for?" James asked, "Tell him that! Relieve him of his suffering already!!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Remus...you better sit down..." Dominique said, as she and the others sat down at the now nearly empty Gryffindor table.

"er, alright..." Remus said as he sat down. "What's up?"

"Well...Kierra's in a right state, Remus"—

"Oh yea, she made that clear when she glared at me from across the table today"—

"No, Remus!" Dominique interjected, "she's just putting on an act!"

"She is??" Lily asked. "Er, I mean, yea, I think she is! That makes sense..."

"She's trying to pretend like she doesn't care that you've broken up...but inside, she's heart broken." Dominique replied, pausing momentarily, but continued on when Remus didn't say anything. "She's so depressed without you...she misses you so much."

"Really?"

"Yea...I mean...she cries all the time, wishing she could take back every bad thing she's ever said..."

"She cries?"

"Yea...even in her sleep, I hear her murmuring your name..."

"Really??" Alice asked.

"Hey how come Lily and Alice are so surprised? How come they don't know?"

"Yea, good question...how come we don't know?" Lily asked, turning to Dominique.

"Well...um..." Dominique began slowly, "she...woke me up one night with her crying...and she confided in me...asked me not to tell anyone..." she said, eyeing Alice and Lily warily, as if to warn them to be careful. They seemed to take a hint.

"Well, that makes sense!" Alice said at once, "why she wakes up teary eyed all the time!"

"Exactly..." Dominique muttered.

"I had no idea..." Remus murmured.

"Yea..." Dominique said, "she misses you so much...but she doesn't want to say anything to you because she's afraid you'll turn her away..."

"She really thinks that??"

Dominique nodded.

"Wow..." Remus sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't know she was so hung up over this..."

"Well...are you gonna do anything about it?" Dominique asked.

Remus glanced at Dominique for a moment before getting up. "Yea...I'll see her...where is she?"

"Probably in the common room...just a hunch..." Dominique replied.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Alright, I'll talk to him..." Kierra said as she got up quickly. "Gosh, I had no idea he was so—Remus!" Kierra had headed towards the portrait hole, only to find Remus, followed by Dominique, Sirius, Lily and Alice, rushing in.

"Kierra!" he breathed, "Hey..."

"Hey..." she replied quietly, as she stopped in front of him.

"I...um..." he started, not knowing what to say exactly. However, the necessity for words was soon removed when Kierra leaned forward and kissed him.

It was tender and sweet...and soft. Remus deepened the kiss as he pulled her closer to him. Just as Kierra wrapped her arms around him, drowning out his surroundings...

"Awww...."

They pulled their lips away from each other slowly, glancing back at their friends, whom were all watching with interest. Remus and Kierra turned back to face each other.

"I missed you too" they said at once.

"Wait...too??"

"But"—

Kierra and Remus turned back around too look at their friends. Everyone's fingers immediately pointed at Dominique, who gasped indignantly. "You two were in on it as well!!" she exclaimed, pointing at Peter and James.

"Wait, hold on..." Remus said, looking at Dominique, "that stuff you told me..."

"What? She told you stuff?? What'd she say??" Kierra asked.

"Nothing!" Dominique began, "I"—

"She said you were sorry...." Remus interjected.

"What"—

"...and that you're depressed"—

"I am not"—

"...and that you cry all the time, even in your sleep"—

"What?! James and Peter said the same thing about you!"

"What??" Remus turned away from Kierra and looked at Peter and James. "You told her that?? But I don't"—

"Wait a minute...you guys LIED to us?? You made up all that stuff about us just to get us back together??" Kierra asked.

"Er...maybe..." Peter said timidly.

"I can't believe this"—

"Urgh! You can't believe this??? I can't believe this!!" James exclaimed. "You two are so stupid, breaking up over one little difference!"

"It wasn't just that!" Kierra retorted.

"Oh, yes Kierra, getting turned down once in a while is a perfectly good reason to break up with a person..." James said sarcastically. "Sometimes people just don't feel like doing it...get over it!"

Kierra gaped at James, unable to produce a witty comeback.

"Anyway," James continued, "you guys still love each other...you just admitted it in front of all of us!"

"We said we missed each other..." Remus said, "and we didn't mean it"—

"First of all, you should speak for yourself...maybe Kierra did mean it," Sirius said.

"No, I didn't!" Kierra said quickly.

"Right, whatever..." Sirius replied. "Secondly, you miss the people you love...so if you missed each other, you loved each other"—

"No"—

"And thirdly," Sirius cut in loudly, "you know it's true because you're still holding each other!"

Kierra and Remus looked at each other; and indeed, Remus still had his arms wrapped around Kierra's waist, while the latter's hands hung loosely around the back of Remus's neck. They immediately backed away from each other, glaring at Sirius.

"And," Sirius added, with a smug smile, "if you two were really through, you'd be glaring at each other, not at me."

Kierra made to open her mouth, but Lily spoke up first.

"Listen guys, I think the point that they're trying to emphasize here is...you two love each other, and you shouldn't let some...variation...get between yourselves...Is it really something that's worth breaking up over?" Lily asked, looking from Remus to Kierra.

Remus sighed and turned to Kierra.

"Lily's right. And I'm sorry"— He was cut off as Kierra had thrown her arms around him again.

"No...you have nothing to be sorry about," she said, "it's me, I'm sorry"—

"Ah, now that's the obliging Kierra and Remus I'm talking about!" James said with a grin. "Way to go, Lily...you know, I think we should go to you when we want to set people up. Dominique's losing her touch."

"Hey my plan worked!" Dominique exclaimed.

"It did not, it just got them fighting again! And thankfully Lily spoke some sense into them"—

"hey, I only guaranteed that they'd be talking to each other, not back together as a couple..." Dominique muttered.

James rolled his eyes. "And you did a spanking good job, Dominique...." He said sarcastically as plopped onto the couch next to Sirius. "Geez...good luck with her, Padfoot...and you wanna marry her..." James stopped abruptly as everyone's gaze fell on him and Sirius. "I mean...er...that is to say...marry...her...to...uh...Lily?" he asked, looking at his girlfriend for help.

Lily's mouth hung slightly open as she stared at James. She slowly shifted her gaze to Sirius, who instead of looking at James, was looking at Dominique.

Dominique stared at Sirius questioningly, moving her mouth slightly, but no words coming out.

"Um...Dominique," Sirius said, getting up and walking over to her, "ok...I didn't want to do it like this, but well...James was so kind enough to take matters out of my hands..." he said, throwing a glare at James, who smiled meekly in return. Sirius stepped up closer to Dominique and took hold of her hands. "D, I love you...and I know you love me back....and....we have this great relationship...it's really strong...so strong in fact, that we were ready to have a baby. That whole incident made me realize that there is no one else I'd rather share that responsibility with...And I know...this might seem a realize, we're leaving this place in a couple of months...and we're going into the real world...we're all going to be starting new lives...I want to start mine with you."

Sirius reached into his pocket and pulled out a velvety box and opened it as he knelt on the ground. He glanced up at Dominique, whose eyes were more lustrous than the diamond on the ring. "Marry me, Dominique."

Dominique glanced at the glimmering jewel in Sirius's hand for only a moment before returning her gaze to the man that knelt before him. He watched her with acuteness, his gaze locked in hers. He was waiting for an answer. But how to answer...yes, she loved him...she loved everything about him...and what flaws he had, she learned to accept them and love them as well. And yet...Dominique clung to the tiny part of her thoughts that said she shouldn't accept. It was too soon...they were too young... Times were not good... The wizarding world was slowly crossing the threshold of war...No doubt she, and all her friends would be affected by it. It was quite possible that their chances for happiness would diminish as the war progressed....

Dominique sighed. She could feel everyone's eyes fixed on her. He needed an answer. A tiny smile finally graced Dominique's features. "Dumbledore's gonna have kittens when he finds out..." she said.

thought I'd be nice and put that in...I was gonna end it w/ Dominique not answering...but two cliff hangers in a row... :/ I felt bad....lol


	29. Chapter 29: The Order of the Phoenix

a/n: so if you're reading on hpff, as you can see, I've stuck up two chapters at once...it just got too long, and I felt bad for the people who have lives and just don't have time to sit back and read 17 pages in one sitting...if your on ff, then sorry, it's one big fat chappie...well hope u like neway, and im sorry I took forever to update, ive got school u know! :P ch 30...or 31, depending on which site you're on, might not be up for a bit...but I'll try...

Chapter 29: The Order of the Phoenix

"Ah, there you guys are!" Peter exclaimed as Remus and Kierra entered the train compartment.

"We were afraid you'd get left behind at the school...saw you two disappear up astronomy tower, after all..." James said with a laugh.

At this, Remus and Kierra blushed.

"Anyway," James continued, "I thought you two had issues with getting...too...close...Whatever happened to that thing about taking precautions...so you don't have kids? I thought that involved something with abstinence?" he asked, smiling wryly.

Remus shrugged as he sat down next to James. "Kinda went out the window...Hey guys!" he said as Lily and Dominique came in, followed by Sirius, who looked quite bored as the girls chatted excitedly.

"I'm so excited!" Lily exclaimed, "two weddings in one summer"—

"So you guys are really gonna get married this summer, huh?" Peter asked, looking at Dominique and Sirius.

"Yea," Sirius replied as he sat down, "in August."

"Hey!" James exclaimed suddenly, "Remember on the first day of school when you guys met? Didn't I predict that you two would get married? Man...Professor Liszt would be so proud of me!"

Sirius chuckled. "Yea, way to go Prongs...you should just become a seer..."

"I know—hey—I also remember asking you if I could be best man"—

"Yea, you'll be best man, don't worry..." Sirius cut him short. "As long as you promise me that I'm best man at your wedding"—

"Hey so what are Peter and I? Chopped liver?" Remus asked sarcastically.

"Aw, don't worry Moony!" Sirius replied, "You can be the flower girl...and Wormtail...you can be...the bridesmaid!"

At this, James and Sirius burst into laughter, while Remus and Peter glared at them.

"Fine...we'll just be each other's best man at our own weddings..." Remus said to Peter.

"Sounds good to me." Peter replied.

When the laughter finally died down, Kierra slowly turned to Dominique. "Er...D...who's going to be your bridesmaid anyway?"  
"Oh...I...I dunno...I haven't thought about that..." she said, looking from Kierra to Lily, who were both eyeing her.

"Well...think about it now!" Lily replied. "By the way, you look absolutely stunning today..."

"What are you talking about?" Kierra asked, putting an arm around Dominique, "She looks stunning every day!"

Dominique groaned. "Oh God guys...I don't want to choose..."

"Well, you have to!" Kierra said.

Dominique against glanced from Kierra to Lily, looking at them uncertainly. "I dunno....if you guys are gonna get all competitive...maybe I'll ask Alice"—

"No!" Lily and Kierra exclaimed at once.

"She's not here...clearly she thinks that snogging Frank is more important than sitting here with you...so there's no point in asking her..." Kierra said quickly.

'It sounds like you two are trying to cut down the competition..." Sirius said with a laugh.

"So?" Lily retorted.

"Hey Sirius, why don't you choose? It's your wedding too!" Dominique suggested.

"Er"—

"Sirius, is that a new shirt?" Kierra asked. "It looks fantastic on you!" she said with a smile.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, tugging at his t-shirt. "This old thing? Dominique said I look horrible in t-shirts"—

"Oh, what does she know?"

"Hmm...insulting my fiancée...minus ten points for Kierra"—

"No, no!! I was just kidding!!" Kierra said quickly.

"Sure you were..." Lily muttered. "Sirius, I'm thinking of getting some snacks off the trolley...do you want anything?"

"Er"—

"Ohh, I'll have some chocolate frogs"—

"Not now, James..." Lily cut him off.

"Mmm...snubbing my best man...you're losing points for that one Evans..." Sirius said with a grin. "Hey, this is fun!"

"Ok, maybe someone who doesn't take advantage of having authority..." Dominique muttered. "Peter! Hey...why don't you choose"—

"Oh no, I'm not picking..." he said quickly.

"Oh come on, D! Just pick someone!!" Kierra exclaimed impatiently.

"Fine! I'm choosing...no one..."

"Who's Na'Juan?" James asked.

"No one!! As in nobody!! I don't care to have a bridesmaid"—

"Wait, then who am I gonna walk down the aisle?" James asked. "I'm not walking by myself"—

"Ok!" Dominique interrupted, "tell you what, we're just gonna flip a coin, alright?" she said as she pulled a sickle out of her pocket. "Ok, one of you call..."

Dominique tossed the coin in the air, just as Lily and Kierra shouted together, "heads!!"

Dominique frowned as she looked at the coin. "it's heads...I said one of you call..."

"Alright, I will..." Lily said, "heads"—

"What? Who said you could call?" Kierra whined as she hit Lily on the arm.

"Ow! Well it's not my fault you're not quick enough to"—

"I'm not slow!!"

"Yea you are! Ouch!!"

Lily and Kierra were soon engaged in what seemed like a fight; they were waving their arms wildly at each other, while Dominique sat between them, covering her face.

"AAAH help me!" she cried as she sank down in her seat to avoid the girls' hits. Sirius grinned as he pulled Dominique over to sit with him.

"Aaah...I love a good cat fight..." he said as he watched Lily and Kierra.

"Ok...girls...that's enough now..." Remus said, as he realized Kierra and Lily would not be stopping any time soon. "Really now!"

Remus rolled his eyes as he wrapped his arms around Kierra's waist; and with great effort he managed to pull his girlfriend away from Lily, who was being held back by James, who in turn was laughing at the girls.

"Oh, come on Lily, I'm better friends with her!" Kierra said, as she struggled to writhe free from Remus.

Lily snorted. "Oh please..."

"I am!!"

Lily suddenly gasped as she clapped her hands together and grinned. "A bridesmaid, by definition, is a"—

"an unmarried young woman, I know that! And I'm not married, if you haven't realized"—

"yea, that too..." Lily interjected, "....but she's also supposed to be a virgin...so HA!!"

Kierra's jaw dropped. She slowly closed her mouth and turned to Remus and glared at him. "Thanks a lot Remus!"

"Why are you blaming him? It's not like he was you first"—

Kierra gasped, while James, Sirius and Peter laughed.

"This is getting kinda vicious..." Dominique said, though no one took heed to her.

"Well, I guess by default, I get to be the bridesmaid!" Lily said cheerfully.

"What?? No, that's not fair!!" Kierra whined.

"Yes it is!"

"No, not really..." Remus said. Everyone turned and looked at him warily. "I mean...that's a really old meaning you're going by, Lily"—

"It's not THAT old"—

"The middle ages aren't old?"

Lily grumbled.

Remus smiled wryly. "Not many people go by the rule anymore. Well, only the part that they're unmarried...but the whole virgin thing...that's hardly considered anymore...since being unmarried doesn't really signify virginity anymore..."

Kierra smiled as she hugged Remus. "Thank you!!"

Remus smiled back at her as she pulled away. "You're welcome...so um...exactly how many people have you been with before me"—

"SO Dominique," Kierra said quickly, turning to her friend, "who's it going to be?"

Dominique sighed. "You know what? Why don't both of you be my bridesmaids?"

"Both of us?" Lily and Kierra asked together.

"Yea...I mean...having one is just a tradition...and I don't care much for tradition...so...yea, you two, and Alice...you all can be my bridesmaids...sound good?"

Kierra and Lily looked at each other guiltily.

"I'm sorry I started hitting you..." Kierra said, smiling sheepishly.

"It's ok ...and I'm sorry Remus is going to be getting on your case now..." Lily replied, as she saw Remus frowning at Kierra.

"It's ok, I'm just gonna ignore him when he asks..." Kierra said as she hugged Lily.

"Geez, I feel the love..." Remus said sarcastically as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well, now that we've got that settled," Sirius said, "we've got another thing to take care of."

"What's that?" Dominique asked.

"You've got to tell Dumbledore we're engaged..."

Dominique's face fell immediately and a look of worry suddenly overtook her. "Oh yea..."

"You haven't told him yet??" Remus exclaimed. "You've been engaged for like...three months now...how could you not have told him??"

"Well..." Dominique began unsurely, "he's a busy guy..."

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking a few minutes out of his busy day to listen to you! You know that!" Remus replied.

"I know! I know!" Dominique exclaimed as she frowned. "I'm just afraid of how he's going to react...he probably won't think it's a good idea..."

"Be that as it may, he should still know. I mean, he'd find out sooner or later, might as well be sooner." Sirius said. "When we get to Lily's house, you're going to send him an owl to tell him you have to see him."

Dominique sighed. "Fine..."

A week later, Lily found herself facing off five little boys in her house, though most of them were twice her size.

"Really, you boys don't have to go..." Lily pleaded, "I mean, we're going to be shopping...extremely boring stuff..."

"I know, but none of us have ever been to a muggle mall before!" James exclaimed excitedly.

"My point exactly..." Lily replied.

"Oh come on, we'll be good!" Sirius said as he pouted.

Lily groaned. "Fine...though I doubt you'll even try..."

"Yes...." The boys said together as they grinned at each other.

"Just...please...don't ogle at everything...and please don't act like you've never been to a mall before..."

"You got it!!" James said as he hugged Lily. "We'll be absolute angels!"

"Oh God no, they're not coming, are they?"

Lily and the boys turned around to see Dominique walk into the living room, followed by Alice and Kierra.

"Dominique, love! You wound me..." Sirius said as he walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek. "By the way, you haven't heard from Dumbledore yet, have you?"

"Er..."

"Dominique!! Don't tell me you haven't written him yet!!" Sirius exclaimed.

"O.k...I haven't...informed him...per say..." Dominique said, looking at Sirius apologetically.

"D, you have to!!

"Alright, I will!! First thing when we get back from the mall...I promise!"

Sirius sighed. "Fine...I'll just make sure I remind you..."

"Mmm...nice to be alone again..." Kierra said as she walked through the food court, hand in hand with Remus.

"Yes, it is...specially after getting all those weird looks from people when we were with the gang..." Remus said with a laugh. The group had decided to split up into smaller groups since Sirius, James and Peter just couldn't contain themselves when they saw some muggle thing interesting...thus resulting in many strange looks from passerby.

"Hey, listen, Kierra...I've got to ask you something..." Remus said as they bought a pack of fish and chips from a vendor and went to sit on a bench. "Don't get mad at me for asking you this...but it's been driving me crazy..."

Kierra groaned as she took a seat next to Remus. "Oh God..."

"Who've you been with??" Remus asked.

"Remus, does it matter? I'm not comparing you to them..." Kierra said.

"Then why should you mind telling me? Come on...I have to know..."

"Why?"

"Because...I'm just curious..."

Kierra sighed. "Fine..."

"Great...so...who have you"—

"yea, I remember the question!" Kierra interjected. "Alright...before you...there was Kyle"—

"What?! You did it with him?!"

"Remus!" Kierra hissed "Shut up! People are looking!!"

"But you hardly went out with him...for like...a few months..." Remus said in a lower voice.

"So? You did it with Elaine on your first date!"

"That was different!"

"How?"

"We were...a little...drunk..."

"Ah, I see..."

"Urgh...I can't believe you did it with Kyle...I thought you liked me though when you were going out with him!"

"I did! But I liked him too...I mean, not the same way...I never had a crush on him...but he asked me out and I liked him as a person..."

"So you just do it with whoever you like as a person??" Remus asked at once. "You've always liked James, so are you gonna go and"—

"Oh my God!" Kierra snapped. "I can't believe you're talking like this!! I mean, I thought you all of all people would be a little more mature!"

Remus stopped and looked at Kierra guiltily. "You're right...I'm sorry...really...I didn't mean that..."

Kierra sighed. "It's ok..."

"So who else have you been with?"

"Remus!!"'

"Oh come on, tell me!"

"Forget it, Remus. I'm not telling you! It doesn't matter!" Kierra exclaimed as she got up and walked away.

"No wait, Kierra, come on! I know it doesn't matter! But I just wanna know..." Remus said as he followed after her.

Kierra stopped walking and turned to face Remus. "Ok, why do you want to know?"

"I just want to know...who I'm being compared to..."

At this, an idea seemed to come to her head, and Kierra smiled slightly. "Well, I could just tell you where you stand..."

Remus looked questioningly at Kierra, who put her arms around him as she put her mouth to his ear.

"But...I'm not too sure...why don't we apparate back to Lily's house...and I could just...evaluate you?" Kierra whispered as she moved her lips to his mouth. She kissed him teasingly, slipping her tongue into his mouth in the process. After a while, when she was almost certain she was out of oxygen, Kierra pulled away from Remus. As she studied his face, Kierra couldn't help but smile; He reacted just as she had hoped. Remus looked at her with half open eyes...he looked incredibly dazed. 'At least I know how to distract him when I want...' she thought.

"Ok" he said stupidly. "Where are we going again?"

"Apparating to Lily's house..." Kierra said as pulled Remus along. "Let's go to the parking lot where it's more empty. We'll disapparate from there..."

"Sure..." he said, as he followed her dizzily to the parking lot.

"Sirius, look at these boots!! And they're on sale!!" Dominique exclaimed as she picked up a pair of thigh-high boots from the display window. "What do you think?"

"Huh, oh they're great..." Sirius muttered, glancing briefly at the boots. He immediately did a double take when he saw Dominique pulling them on. "Wow...." He murmured.

Dominique grinned. "You like?" she asked as she modeled the boots for Sirius.

"Yea...looks good with that skirt...but you know what? It'd look even better with?"

"What?"

"That one little black thing you have..."

Dominque giggled. "Sirius!"

"Oh wait..." Sirius said quietly, looking around to make sure no one could hear them, "they'd look even better in my bed...wrapped around my hips"—Sirius stopped immediately as he heard footsteps behind him. "Oy...hello!" he said cheerily to the salesman who stood behind them.

"Oh! I think I want to buy these!" Dominique said quickly as she sat down and pulled the boots off.

"Very well." The salesman replied curtly, watching with slight revulsion at the giddy couple. As Dominique handed the man the boots he smiled as though it pained him to do so.

Dominique quickly paid for the boots and together she and Sirius left the shoe shop, talking excitedly about their honeymoon.

"I know Paris is romantic and all, but I used to live there! I mean, who wants to go to their hometown for their honeymoon?" Dominique said as they walked through the crowds.

"Hmm, fair point...alright...how about...."

"Egypt!!" Dominique exclaimed excitedly.

"Egypt?" Sirius asked. "Er...I was looking more at somewhere in Europe...but...ok, if you wanna go to Egypt...then Egypt it is!"

"Aw...really?? You don't mind??" Dominique asked. "It's just that I've seen most of Europe already..."

"Totally alright...actually Egypt sounds like fun...I've always wanted to ride a carpet..."

"Oooh, the bookstore! Come on Sirius, I want to get a present for Kierra...her birthday's coming up..." Dominique said as she dragged Sirius into the book shop and headed straight for the romance section.

"She reads this kind of rubbish?" Sirius asked as he picked up the latest bestselling romance novel and read the cover. "The Chamber of Secrets...by F.D. Knowling..."

(a/n: lol I'm sorry...I'm cheesy and I love parodies...)

Sirius flipped the book open to a random page and began to read aloud:

"...She slid her hand down the hard, silken length of him, and he let out a deep, guttural cry"—

"Length of him??" Sirius asked incredulously as he stuffed the book back into its proper place on the shelf. "Is that what you girls call it??" he asked with a grin.

Dominique rolled her eyes.

"We call it the same thing you call it...but these romance authors always feel like they've got to get creative when they talk about it...anyway...Kierra has a secret addiction to these novels, so I thought I'd let her know that I know about it by getting her a few books as a joke..."

Sirius cocked an eyebrow at her. "Does Remus know she reads this...pornography?"

Dominique laughed. "It is not porn...and no, Remus doesn't know...it's not his business anyway...so don't tell him, unless you want them to get into a fight and break up again!"

"Heaven forbid...alright, I'm going to browse around in another section, this is too embarrassing, standing in a romance section..." Sirius said with a shutter as he walked away.

In no time, Sirius found himself in the automotive section, looking at motorcycle guides.

'I could definitely go for one of these...' he thought excitedly. 'With a bit of magical adjustments...'

Just then, Sirius's thoughts were interrupted by a small gasp. Sirius looked up to see an attractive blonde girl, who looked about 16 or 17, staring at him excitedly...or rather, his book.

"Oh! Sorry! I just...I was actually looking for that book!" the girl said, pointing to the motorcycle book that Sirius held.

"Oh...er...here, all yours!" he said, handing her the book.

The girl looked at him guiltily. "Oh, no, I couldn't...you got it first..."

"No, don't worry about it, I was just looking, I'm not buying..."

"Oh, ok...thanks..." she said, as she took the book from Sirius.

"Thinking of getting a bike?" he asked.

"Oh..no...my brother's birthday is coming up and he's absolutely obsessed, so I thought he'd like this book..." the girl replied, brushing a lock of her blonde hair over her shoulders as she smiled at Sirius.

"Oh, cool..."

"What about you? Do you have one?"

"Oh...no...no, I wish though...they look pretty cool..." Sirius replied.

"Yea, they are....oh, I'm Claire, by the way."

"I'm Sirius."

"Sirius...that's an interesting name...never heard it before."

"Yea, I know...it's my mum's fault...she named me..."

Claire laughed. "No, I mean I like it! It's rare..."

"Oh yea, it is, isn't it?—oh—hey D!" Sirius said as Dominique joined him and Claire.

Dominique forced a smile at the blonde girl that stood by Sirius.

"Did you find your books?" Sirius asked as Dominique joined them. Claire glanced at the books in Dominique's arms. The top one's cover read 'Lust at First Sight' and featured a tall, shirtless man with blonde hair, holding a brown haired woman, who wore a flowing, lavender dress. Dominique noticed Claire's amused look and immediately held the books to her chest, covering the title.

"I told you they're not mine! They're for Kierra"—

"Yea, yea...I know!" Sirius said exasperatedly. "Oh, by the way, this is Claire. Claire, this is Dominique."

"Hi" the girls said to each other in unison.

"I'm assuming you two are friends then?" Claire asked. Before Sirius could so much as open his mouth to respond, he felt Dominique's arm wrap around his.

"Actually, he's my fiancé." Dominique answered with a false sweetness, as she rubbed her hand along Sirius's arm, stretching her fingers along his bicep so Claire couldn't miss the glittering rock on her finger.

"Oh, ok then..." Claire replied as she pulled her gaze away from Dominique's hand.

"Well, we should get going now, Sirius." Dominique said.

"Oh, right...well, nice meeting you Claire. Bye!" Sirius said as Dominique pulled him towards the checkout. "Wow D," he said sarcastically as he felt Dominique pinching his butt, "you just can't keep your hands off of me, can you?"

Dominique glanced over her shoulder to make sure Claire had seen. She smiled inwardly as she saw Claire watching her and Sirius, jaw dropping slightly as Dominique had pinched Sirius.

"Oh well, it's not my fault you're so incredibly sexy..." Dominique replied with a smile to Sirius.

Sirius in turn, only chuckled. "Really? I could've sworn you were feeling me up to claim your territory!"

Dominique smiled. "Well, that too..."

"Aren't you cute..." Sirius replied, putting an arm around Dominique's waist. "Getting all jealous like that..."

"I'm not jealous!"

"Of who?"

"Claire!"

"Ha!"

"Hey! No fair, you tricked me!"

"And so I did...it's no big deal...I kind of like that you're all possessive...shows me that you care..."

"And because it makes you feel wanted and it gives you an ego boost?"

Sirius smiled sheepishly. "yea, that too..."

"What the hell?!" Lily exclaimed as she and her friends apparated into her house. Lily glowered at Remus and Kierra, who were both scrambling to pull themselves off the kitchen table.

"Oh God...Remus!! You've got a Kierra on you!!" James exclaimed dramatically, causing everyone but Lily to laugh.

"We've been looking all over for you, and all this time you two have been snogging each other in my house!! On the table too!! WE EAT HERE YOU KNOW!!!"

"Lily calm down, it's no big deal!!" Kierra exclaimed as she hastily buttoned her shirt.

"It is too!! We were worried sick about you lot!! I was afraid something happened to you! We're living in a dangerous time! Wizards and witches disappear all the time and turn up dead months later, Kierra!! I was afraid that it happened to you!!"

"Lily, calm yourself, we're fine!" Kierra exclaimed.

"You could've at least told us that you were leaving!"

Kierra sighed. "Ok, I'm sorry! Really!"

"You should be..."

Kierra rolled her eyes. "You're really starting to sound like my mum..."

"Good. At least one of us is..."

"What??"

"Ok both of you shut up!" Sirius said irritably. "You're giving me a headache...Kierra, you should've been more responsible and told someone that you were going...and Lily, don't be so hard on her...it really wasn't that big of a deal...no reason to go ballistic..."

Kierra and Lily nodded. But as Kierra glanced at Remus, she frowned.

"Hey, how come Remus doesn't get yelled at for anything??"

Remus looked at her innocently. "I did no wrong...except that I let you lure me over here..."

Kierra rolled her eyes as Remus sighed deeply.

"Yea, I'm just big, bad Kierra...evil me, luring innocent babes like you..." she said sarcastically.

Remus nodded in agreement. "Exactly...I never should have let you kiss me...knowing that you've got the most intoxicating lips..."

A smile spread over Kierra's face as she felt herself blush. However, she suddenly frowned and turned around.

"Do you guys mind??" She asked impatiently.

"Oh, not at all!" James said happily as he seated himself on the couch in front of them. "I love it when they get all cheesy and romantic...Lily dear, could you bring some popcorn??" he called after Lily. James turned back to Remus and Kierra, both whom were scowling at him.

"Hey look!" Peter exclaimed, pointing at the window. A bright red bird soared through the open window, dropping a thin envelope onto the coffee table before it perched itself on Dominique's lap.

"Fawkes!" Dominique exclaimed.

"Erm...you him?" Sirius asked.

"Of course! He belongs to Dumbledore!" Dominique replied. "Who's the letter for?" Dominique asked Lily, who had picked up the letter and was reading the front of the envelope.

"For you of course!" Sirius said. "Wait, you didn't write him already, did you??"

"No"—

"It's to all of us!" Lily said as she stared at the letter curiously.

"Well, open it!" Frank said. "Read it aloud."

Lily carefully broke the red seal on the envelope and pulled out a piece of parchment and unfolded it. She frowned as she glanced over the brief letter.

"I don't get it..." she said.

"What does it say?" Remus asked.

Lily sighed and read the note aloud:

_'As the sun dies, be ready for an excursion. But in order to partake, you must get passed Oiseau...The Dominican flower will know how to. Once you do, you'll be rewarded with a gift. Look closely at it. It is an important key. You'll find it in the mouth of familiar, awkward, weird, kind, eccentric strangers.'_

"What??" Peter asked.

"It's a code!" Dominique said at once, taking the letter from Lily.

"Ok...the only part I get is 'as the sun dies be ready for an excursion'...at sunset we're going somewhere..." Sirius said.

"Who's Oiseau?" Frank asked.

"Oiseau..." Remus muttered... "Doesn't that mean..."

"bird..." Dominique finished. "In French...so he must mean Fawkes...we have to get passed Fawkes...Hmmm..."

Dominique frowned as she slowly paced around the room with the note in her hand. "The Dominican flower will know how to..."

"Where do get a Dominican flower from??" Peter asked.

"Dominican Republic?" Lily offered.

"It has to stand for something else..." Dominique muttered. "It can't really be anything Dominican...that's nowhere near here!"

"Wait, maybe it means you!" Peter said, looking at Dominique...Dominican flower...DF...those are your initials..."

"So? That might have just been a coincidence..." Dominique replied.

"Wait hold on...that gives me an idea..." James said. "I'm no language expert, but I'm pretty sure Dominique comes from Dominica...wait! Fiore!"

"What?" Dominique asked, turning to James.

"Fiore! What's a fiore?? Does that mean anything??"

"Flower, in Italian"—Dominique gaped at James for a moment, but then was overtaken by excitement. "Fiore's a flower! Dominican flower, Dominique Fiore!! That's me!!"

"Brilliant!" Sirius said excitedly as he pat James and Peter on the back.

"So you know how to...you know how to go through Fawkes?" Peter asked, glancing at the letter.

"Er...I do?" Dominique asked.

"According to Dumbledore, you do..." Kierra said.

"But I don't!" Dominique protested.

James sighed. "Dumbledore's a great wizard and all, but I swear he can be so weird sometimes..."

"Ok, we'll get back to that one later...what's the rest mean?" Alice asked.

"...Look closely at your gift. It is an important key. You'll find it in the mouth of familiar, awkward, weird, kind, eccentric strangers..." Lily read. "What gift?"

"We don't know yet...all w know that it's an important key...to something...and we'll find it in the mouth of a familiar, awkward, weird, kind stranger..." Kierra said.

"How can we know a familiar stranger?" Remus asked. "If he's a stranger, he can't be familiar..."

"Urgh...I hate riddles..." Kierra muttered. "We need to figure this out...it's already sunset!"

Lily looked closely at the last line and grinned. "Look at what each word starts with...f...a...w...k...e...s...Fawkes!"

"So we'll find this gift, which is a key...in the mouth of Fawkes?" Kierra asked.

"Yes..." Sirius said as he took a seat next to Dominique, where Fawkes sat. "Ok Fawkes, open up!" Sirius said as he reached over to pat Fawkes, only to result in Fawkes taking off and flying upstairs.

"Follow that bird!" Frank shouted as he and the gang chased Fawkes up the stairs.

They finally cornered Fawkes, who now perched on the corner poster of Lily's bed.

"Ok, there has to be a certain way of getting him to open his mouth..." Alice said.

Kierra took the letter from Lily's hand and studied it.

"Dominique, you're supposed to know how to..." Kierra said.

"But I don't!"

"Just try!" Remus said. "You're the only one who's actually...acquainted with Fawkes...he knows you..."

"Alright..." Dominique muttered as she sat down on Lily's bed. "Here here!" she said to the phoenix, extending her hand out to him.

Fawkes stared at Dominique for a few seconds, but then flew over to her and landed in her lap.

"Good boy...now, can you open your mouth?" She asked, holding her hand under his beak. Fawkes stared at Dominique again, but did not open his mouth.

"Please?" she asked.

Nothing.

"Do you always see Fawkes when you see Dumbledore?" Frank asked suddenly.

"Er, not all the time, but yes, quite often..." Dominique replied.

"And what happens when you're around Fawkes?"

"I don't understand what you're getting at..." Dominique said uncertainly.

"I mean...how do you two interact? Do you do anything to him? Stroke him...pet him...feed him?"

"Oh!" Dominique exclaimed. "Of course!"

She immediately put her finger on the phoenix's head and stroked him gently. "I discovered once...that if you put a light amount of pressure here"—she pressed ever so slightly on the back of his head—"he's ticklish there, and"—Fawkes chirped happily; as he did so, a tiny, silvery object fell out of his mouth and onto Lily's bed.

"Look, there it is!" James exclaimed. He leaned in closer to get a better look. "That's not a key...it looks like...a tiny goblet!"

"Of course!" Remus exclaimed. Everyone turned to look at him.

"It's a port key!"

"What? How do you know?" Kierra asked.

"Well...it certainly isn't a key...but the letter says...important key...a port key! And it makes sense...In order to take part in this trip, we have to get passed Fawkes, with Dominique's help...we'll find a gift in Fawkes's mouth which is an important key...which is supposed to get us on our journey...what else could it be but a port key? "

"Hmm...you may be on to something..." Dominique said, "but...isn't it kind of small? I mean, for nine of us? We can't all hold onto it if it were a port key..."

"You could put an enlargement charm on it." Kierra suggested.

"Yea! Wait...does an enlargement charm affect the workability of a port key?" Sirius asked. Everyone turned to Lily, who was frowning, as she always did when she was in deep thought.

"I...I don't think so..." Lily said slowly. "It shouldn't affect the port key, if in fact it is one..."

"It has to work!" Kierra said, "Dumbledore probably had to shrink the goblet anyway for it to fit into Fawkes's mouth! So if we're just returning it to its normal size..."

"Good point." Lily said as she pulled out her wand. "Alright...here goes nothing. Engorgio!"

Slowly, the small silver goblet began to enlarge itself, until it was nearly the size of a two liter jug.

"Ok...let's all put a hand on it on the count of three." Alice said as she climbed onto Lily's bed. The others followed Alice and climbed onto bed as well, until they all encircled the goblet with their hands extended to it.

"Ok," Sirius said, "One, two, three"—

Suddenly Lily's bedroom dissolved as everyone was lifted off of the bed. Moments later, the group of nine landed hard on the floor.

"I guess it was a portkey after all..." Kierra said as she sat up on the floor.

"Ah...I see you all understood my letter."

The group of seventeen and eighteen year olds all looked up to see Dumbledore standing over them, looking at them intently through his half moon shaped spectacles.

"Professor!" James exclaimed as he stood up quickly. "Yes, we figured it out..." he said as he glanced around the room and took in their surroundings.

They were in Dumbledore's office...except now all furniture was gone and there were only chairs around the whole room, most of which were already occupied. James, for the life of him couldn't recognize anyone, except Professor McGonagall, and Hagrid, who waved happily at the newcomers.

"Oh my..." Dominique murmured, as she stared at a grumpy looking old man with long gray hair and beard.

The man stared back at her, with an expressionless face.

"Nonno..." "grandfather..."

The old man blinked at Dominique.

"Dominique?"

"Ok now that everyone is here, why don't we start now, eh Dumbledore?" a man with a magical eye asked impatiently.

"Yes, yes...perhaps we should. If you all could find some seats...we can start right away." Dumbledore said.

"Now, I want to thank you all for coming on such a short notice. First, let me explain why I asked you all in particular to come to this meeting. As you all know, over these past few months, Lord Voldemort is reaching the height of his power, and is gaining more and more followers. I thought it was time that we mobilized ourselves to fight the injustice that he is polluting around the wizarding world. Now, there are about twenty five of us right now...I certainly hope the numbers increase as we progress. Now before I go further, let me explain why I've asked you all to join forces with me. First, I know most of you very well, enough that I know we have mutual trust and belief in each other, which will prove to be extremely crucial later on in this war...

"Secondly, I know you all to be highly talented and skilled witches and wizards, and firmly believe that each and everyone one of you will be an asset...any questions so far?"

"Er, yea..." The man with the magical eye growled, "what's with the kids?" he asked, nodding at the marauders and the girls.

"Moody," Dumbledore started, "These recent graduates are adults...and I'm pleased to tell you that...most of them will be training as aurors, under your supervision, within the next month...I saw it only fit that they be invited to join the order."

The man named Moody only grunted in reply as he looked over each of them, sizing them all up.

"You, boy...what's your name?" he asked, staring at Remus.

"Er...Remus Lupin, sir..."

"You look like one good hex could finish you off. We need to toughen you up before you start training..."

"Oh..." Remus could feel himself color. In front of all his friends...how humiliating...in front of his girlfriend...in front of Dumbledore... "I'm not going to be an auror..." he said quietly.

"Moody, Remus is an exceptionally talented wizard. I hardly need add that he was a prefect while going here." Dumbledore said sharply, giving Moody a warning look.

"Now," Dumbledore continued, "who among you would like to join me in this battle for justice?"

Hagrid stood up immediately. "I'll fight with ya, professor!" he roared. "I'll be on your side til the end!"

Dumbledore smiled. "Thank you, Hagrid..."

"And I, of course." Professor McGonagall added.

Everyone else in the room nodded eagerly in their agreement.

"Well then, why don't you all introduce yourselves now? It would probably be most prudent for you all to know each other's names." Dumbledore said, nodding at Moody to start the 'icebreaker'.

"Alastor Moody." He said, his magical eye swiveling in his socket, as he glanced around the room.

"Dedalus Diggle!" said a small, enthusiastic looking wizard next to him.

"Aberforth Dumbledore" said the grumpy old man who blinked at Dominique earlier.

"Dumbledore??" James asked incredulously.

"Yes, we're brothers"—Dumbledore said cheerily—"moving on"—he said, indicating at the red haired man next to him.

"Gideon Prewett..."

"Fabian Prewett...and we're brothers too!" the shorter red haired man said.

Within a few minutes, everyone had introduced themselves, and the meeting was over.

"I will be contacting you all shortly as to when and where our next meeting will be. I soon hope to have a permanent headquarters set up soon." Dumbledore said at the conclusion of the meeting.

Several of the order members lingered in Dumbledore's office, all talking excitedly of how they wanted to fight, while many others quickly said their goodbyes and left.

"I can't believe that weird bloke is Dumbledore's brother!" James said as the gang sat in a corner of the spacious office and chatted.

"I know! They seem really...different..." Kierra remarked.

"Dominique, you seemed to have known him...what was that about?" Lily asked.

"Oh...he's my grandfather..." Dominique replied.

"What?" Sirius asked. "Seriously??"

Dominique nodded. "He was my mother's father...I haven't seen him in like...five years..."

"I take it you aren't very close then?" Lily asked.

Dominique shook her head. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped as Moody approached the group.

"So...future aurors..." he said as he sat down with them. "Well, most of you...which one of you want to be aurors?"

All of them but Remus and Peter raised their hands.

Moody raised an eyebrow at them.

"Dumbledore told me why Lupin here isn't training. What do you want to be?" he asked, looking at Peter.

"Er...I've got a job at Gringotts...I start next week..." Peter replied a bit timidly.

"Really? Well, that's good...We definitely need some good wizards working with those goblins..."

"Oh..." Peter said, not knowing what else to say.

"And you'll be Aberforth's granddaughter, am I right?" he asked, looking at Dominique.

"Yes..." she replied, trying very hard to look anywhere but Moody's magical eye. It was giving her the creeps.

"Well, we'll be expecting a lot from you then, if you're having Dumbledore blood in you." He growled. He then turned his attention to Frank and nodded at him.

"Alright there, Longbottom?"

"Er, yea." Frank replied.

"You guys know each other then?" Sirius asked.

"I know his family," Moody replied. "great line of wizards. Your mum speaks highly of you, you know." He said as he glanced back at Frank.

"So...erm...Mr. Moody...you're going to be our trainer?" Lily asked.

Moody turned to Lily. "First, just call me Moody...and no, not exactly your trainer, I'm already a full-time auror and don't have much time for training, but I'm going to be mentoring you lot. Your main trainer will be Crouch...you've all heard of him I'm sure. Works for the ministry?"

The group nodded in acknowledgment.

"Strict bloke..." Moody said, staring out the window as he reached for his hip flask and unscrewed the cap. "and people call ME mad...you lot just watch out with him...he's tough, and can be a right pain in the"—

"Ah, Moody, I need to have a word with you!" Gideon Prewitt said as he joined the group.

"Right then." Moody said as he followed Gideon out of Dumbledore's office. "Well, I'll be seeing you all then." He said to the group as he shut the door behind him.

"Er...interesting fellow..." Kierra said at last.

"Yea..." Remus said, as he stared after Professor Dumbledore, who was seeing Hagrid to the door. "Why'd he have to tell Moody about me??" he found himself asking out loud.

"Oh, Remus, it's no big deal!" Kierra said.

"Yea it is"—

"But some people would have to know! I mean, especially in the order...they might get all suspicious of you if you were to just disappear once a month...that could cause problems if they were ignorant!" Kierra said.

"Exactly," Sirius agreed. "He has to give special disclosures sometimes...I mean, I bet he's told everyone not to be alarmed that I'm a Black, and that I don't even consider myself one..." Sirius said jokingly, trying to cheer his friend up, which it seemingly did; Remus smiled slightly. When he saw his friend's expression lighten, Sirius turned to Dominique.

"Hey...now might be a good time to talk to Dumbledore..." he said, "everyone's leaving..."

Dominique looked at Sirius timidly. "Do I have to??"

"Yes!"

"Stay with me!"

"What??"

"Please??"

"Dominique, why are you scared?? He's your great-uncle! He's your family!!"

"Ok, have you seen how my family interacts with each other??" Dominique retorted, "My grandfather scarcely spoke two words to me tonight, and he's already left!"

"yea ok...that's him...we're talking about Albus Dumbledore...our Dumbledore...there's no need to worry..." Sirius said soothingly. "I'll stay if you really want me to, but I think it'd be better if you told him yourself..."

Dominique sighed. "I know...but I don't want to!"

"Well, you have to! Oh, hello sir!" Sirius said at once, straightening up in his seat, seeing that Dumbledore had joined them.

"Hello Mr. Black, and all of you..." Dumbledore replied, nodding at the group. "Well, I'm glad you all are joining the order. I was very keen on making sure we had at least a few good, young minds in our order." He said as he smiled and nodded at Professor McGonagall, who was the only other occupant of the office, as she left.

"Well, glad we can be of service." Dominique said with a smile. "Anywhos, it's getting late...we should probably head back now..." she said quickly as she got up, but Lily pulled her back down in her seat.

"Yes, we should get going, we'll see you in a bit, Dominique...just don't floo over to my house, our fireplace isn't hooked up to the floo network." Lily said.

"Is there something you wish to speak to me about, Dominique?" Dumbledore asked, as he looked at his niece.

"Er...yea...there is..." she replied quietly.

"Very well." Dumbledore said as he reached for the goblet they had used earlier for a portkey. "This will take you back to your house, Miss Evans. I'll give Dominique another portkey when she's ready to return to you all."

And without further adieu, Dominique's friends disappeared out of Dumbledore's office.

"What is it that you wish to tell me?" Dumbledore asked as he took a seat across from Dominique.

"Oh...well...I um...wanted to tell you that um..." Dominique looked into Dumbledore's twinkling blue eyes. They were very penetrating. Dominique sighed. If she didn't tell him, he'd probably read her mind anyway...

"I wanted to tell you...that..." She couldn't do it...

"Your engaged?" Dumbledore asked.

Dominique gaped at him. "Wow.." she murmured, "You're good!"

Dumbledore smiled slightly as he pointed at Dominique's hand. Her ring.

"Oh..." she said dumbly. "You're observant..."

"Thank you, dear." Dumbledore said quietly. "You are engaged to Mr. Black?"

"Yes sir."

"How long has this been kept?"

"About four months..."

"And when do you plan to wed?"

"In August..."

Dumbledore sighed as he looked at Dominique intently. "Dominique, do you know how old you are?"

"Seventeen...but I'll be eighteen in a couple of months!" she added quickly. Dumbledore didn't answer.

"You don't seem very surprised that I'm getting married..." Dominique said after some moments' silence.

"I must confess, I'm not entirely surprised...you two seem very happy together, and I admit, I was under the impression that it would happen sooner or later...I was thinking though, that neither of you would've considered the matter until after you left Hogwarts...well...no matter. Congratulations Dominique. I sincerely wish you and Sirius every happiness."

Dominique stared at Dumbledore. "You mean that??" she asked.

"Of course."

"You mean, you're not mad? You're...you're ok with it?"

"Yes, I completely approve. What were you expecting? A live howler?"

Dominique smiled. "Something of the sort..." and without further ceremony Dominique threw her arms around Dumbledore and hugged him, causing his violet cap to fall off his head.


	30. Chapter 30: Training Day

Chapter 30: Training Day

"Ok, which one?"

Sirius glanced at Dominique, who held two different pictures of flowers in each of her hands; in her left she held a photo of violets, in her right she had a picture of white jasmines.

"Erm...I like the violets..." Sirius said finally.

Dominique frowned slightly. "Are you sure?" she asked, extending her right arm out to give Sirius a better look at the jasmines.

Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed. "No," he said wearily, "the jasmines look better...let's go with the jasmines..."

Dominique grinned as she put the pictures down and stacked them away on the table. "Excellent...I knew we'd agree on that! Now...onto the cake..."

"chocolate!!"

"You don't serve chocolate cakes at weddings, Sirius!"

"Says who?"

"Says...I don't know! You just don't! There's no elegance in that...and I've never been to a wedding where they've served chocolate cake!" Dominique replied.

"Well, we can be the first!" Sirius said with a grin.

"Or, maybe we can get this French vanilla"—Dominique started, as she pulled out a small booklet from her bag that contained photos of large, many layered cakes.

"Vanilla? Dominique...that's dull"—

"Oh come on, look at this one"—Dominique pointed to a white four layered cake, the top one bearing bride and groom figurines—"isn't it beautiful??"

"Just dandy..." Sirius said dully.

Dominique frowned at him.

"I mean... yes, it's a beauty!" Sirius said with fake enthusiasm. "D...I thought were supposed to be planning this wedding together..."

"We are!"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her.

Dominique sighed and smiled at him apologetically. "Sorry...we should make decisions together...ok...if you want"—

"Listen, D, if you really don't want me to help just say so...I don't mind, you know..." Sirius interrupted.

Dominique smiled sheepishly. I just do it all by myself? I'll call on you if I need any help..."

"Sure," Sirius said as he got up from the table, "anyway, it's getting late and we should get some sleep if we want to get up early for auror training tomorrow morning..."

"Oh, right..." Dominique said as she tucked away her notebook of wedding plans into her bag and stood up.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay the night? I get awfully lonely here..." Sirius said, trying to pout as best as he could.

It was true; ever since he moved into his own flat this summer, he had never felt so alone in his life, even though his friends and fiancée visited almost daily. Sirius had asked Dominique to move in with him, but she said no, and opted to stay with Kierra's family instead, because she was afraid of Dumbledore's reaction. "Anyway", she had explained weeks ago, "We're getting married soon, so you won't have to live alone for that long!"

Dominique smiled at Sirius. "I'm sorry, Kierra's family is expecting me tonight! I want to say goodbye to her parents before they leave for Bulgaria."

"And then you can start babysitting Kierra?" Sirius joked.

Dominique laughed. "They've got Remus to do that...no, it'll be fun, just Kierra and me, in her house for these next couple of weeks. She promised to help me out with the wedding preparations"—

"Hey, you'll get her help but not mine??" Sirius asked indignantly.

"Sirius, she's a girl! She understands better"—

"yea, yea...I'm just kidding..." Sirius said. "Well if you're sure you can't stay the night..."

"Well, yea, I'm sure I can't stay the night. But," Dominique added as she stepped closer to Sirius, "I think I can spare a few more minutes for you before I go..."

* * *

Kierra paced around her bedroom, glancing at the clock every few minutes.

"You know, you might wear a hole in the floor if you do that long enough..." Remus commented, as he sat lazily on Kierra's bed. "You know how Dominique and Sirius are...she's probably just running a little late...don't worry"—

Kierra stopped pacing and stared at Remus. "She was supposed to be back an hour ago! If she was running late she'd tell me"—

"But there are probably about a dozen things they could be up to that takes an hour, that D wouldn't want to tell you about." Remus replied.

Kierra smiled slightly. "True..."

Remus got up from the bed and went to Kierra, putting his arms around her.

"I should get going, it's late"—Remus kissed her on the cheek—"you need your sleep, if you're going to the ministry tomorrow."

Kierra backed away slightly from Remus, her eyes widened slightly.

"Oh you'll be fine, don't worry!" Remus said reassuringly when he saw the look on her face.

"Everyone says that Crouch guy is awful! Brutally strict"—

"Kierra, you're a very intelligent witch, I'm sure you'll do fine!"

"I wish you were going to be there." Kierra said with a frown.

Remus smiled slightly. "I do too. But as it is...I won't...but really, you need to have more confidence...as long as you have that, Crouch can't hurt you."

"What makes you think that?" Kierra people let insults bounce right off of them"—Remus replied, and smiling thoughtfully he added—"I mean, look at some of our friends...won't mention any names..."

Kierra laughed. "I love James..." she said.

Remus grinned as he headed towards the door. "Don't we all..." he said, "alright, I'm going to say goodbye to your parents, and I'm out. Good night, Kierra." He said as he headed out of her room.

Kierra waved goodbye to Remus as he left. As his figure disappeared down the hall, Kierra turned back into her room and glanced at her clock. 12:00. She had to be at the ministry in seven hours for training, which didn't leave her much time for sleep...

Kierra sighed deeply. The whole summer seemed to go by so quickly. It seemed as if only yesterday she was attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it hadn't seemed too long ago that she was at Petunia Evans's wedding (a/n: sorry, didn't include it here; it's in lll though!), and only a few weeks ago she was at the first ever meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. And now, two of her friends were getting married. However, Kierra had more pressing matters to deal with. Tomorrow, she would be starting her training as an auror for the ministry. An auror...though Kierra was not particularly keen on becoming one, her parents seemed so excited that she qualified, and so she couldn't bring herself to pass up the opportunity.

Just then Kierra's thoughts were interrupted by a cracking noise. Dominique had just apparated into her bedroom.

"Sorry I'm late!" Dominique exclaimed through panting breaths. "Sirius and I...we... erm...the planning..."

Kierra smiled slightly as she put her hands to her hips. "uh huh..."

"Really, I swear!"

"You're blushing like mad!"

"Oh..."

"Let's just get some sleep...we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow..."

"Oh right..." Dominique said as she tossed her bag on the floor. "Sirius was telling me about Crouch...he sounds like a nutter..."

"He IS a nutter...that's why I'm worried about tomorrow...I have to make a good first impression!" Kierra exclaimed.

"Don't worry, you will!" Dominique said. "I'm sure he isn't that horrible...probably just a tough boss...just be yourself, I'm sure everything will be ok..."

Kierra frowned as she headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth. "I dunno...being myself never seems to leave good impressions...I tried that with Remus's parents, and that didn't go too well, remember?"

Dominique laughed. "How could I forget? Well...at least you leave lasting impressions on everyone you meet..."

"Oh shut it..." Kierra muttered.

"But they like you now!!" Dominique called after Kierra, as she laughed at the mere recollection of the events during their stay at the Lupins' house.

* * *

The next morning, Kierra found herself standing in the department of law enforcement in the Ministry of Magic, at 7am, listening to their new boss, Mr. Crouch.

"Alright everyone..." Crouch drawled, "as you know, with this war going on, the ministry is in dire need of aurors to combat you-know-who and his followers...now, we need to recruit two of you immediately to work with our senior aurors, as two of our former colleagues were killed in the line of duty..."

Kierra glanced nervously at James, who was standing next to her. The latter however, didn't notice; he was listening avidly to Mr. Crouch, with a look of both fear and anticipation.

"So, we'll go through a few different aptitude tests with you all today, and I'll pick two of you to join the ranks of our senior aurors. The rest of you will remain as trainees, and work under myself, and Mr. Alastor Moody, our top auror" Crouch said, glancing shortly at Mad Eye Moody, who stood next to Crouch.

"Now, the fact that you've all been accepted as trainees does not necessarily guarantee a spot as an auror in a few years...I reserve the right to expel any of you, at any time, if you don't meet my standards. Is that clear?"

The small assembly of trainees nodded immediately.

"Alright, follow Moody down the hall, you're going to be working on coordination first." Crouch said, "I'll be with you all in a bit."

"Oh ??" Kierra muttered quietly so only James and Frank, who walked on either side of her, could hear her.

"Oh come off it, Kierra, you'll be fine..." James said as they followed Moody down the hall and into another large, very long, empty room. "You're not that clumsy..."

Kierra smiled wryly. "Thanks for the support, Potter..."

"Don't mention it." James replied with a grin.

"Alright everyone," Moody said he closed the door behind them. "What we're going to do is test your coordination. Now, if I could have all your wands"—Moody held out his hand and collected everyone's wands—"Now one of the worst case scenarios when on the job is losing your wand...you might drop it, or you've been disarmed...whatever the case...it happens sometimes, and you need to be able to dodge hexes and curses without magic...so this is where the coordination comes in."

"I'm going to leave you in here one at a time. Your goal is to get from one end of the room to the other, while I have dummy wizards send curses at you from all around the room," he said, as he pointed out several dummy wizards that were propped up all around the large room, "The only warning you'll get is when they're yelling the curses...of course they're not real wizards...they're just fixed to send harmless zaps of light at you, of course if you get hit, it'll leave a mark on you so I'll know how successful you were in dodging them. Any questions?"

No one spoke.

"Alright then," Moody said, we'll go alphabetically by last name...while one person is in here, the rest of you will be taking the rationale and judgment exam....alright...Sirius Black, you're first."

Sirius smiled slightly, glancing cockily at the group before stepping forward.

"Coordination should be a breeze for me," Dominique whispered to Kierra, "all those years of ballet are finally going to pay off..."

Kierra only nodded in return; well, that certainly wasn't encouraging for her. Kierra had taken ballet when she was about five, but quit after two weeks because she kept falling over, even when holding onto the bar.

"Ok, everyone let's wait outside, I'll be watching through the door." Moody said as he nudged the group to leave.

"You can see through the door?" Kierra asked without thinking.

Moody's magical eye swung into focus on Kierra. "Yea. This eye can see through just about anything."

"Anything?" Kierra asked, fingering the edge of her blouse nervously.

"yea..." he replied gruffly, turning his back on her as he headed towards the door.

Kierra made a small face of revulsion as she glanced at Lily, Dominique and Alice, all whom were trying to keep from smiling.

"I also have 360 degree vision, Nakofsky..." Moody said as he opened the door.

"Cool...." James and Frank said at once, looking at Moody in awe, as Kierra gaped at him.

* * *

"Alright, line up you lot..." Crouch said curtly at the end of the day. As he walked by the line, he looked each nervous candidate up and down, before continuing on to the next person.

"Pretty good, Fiore...one too many marks on your back though...you need to see your enemies from all sides...good Evans...Longbottom..excellent...not a single mark...and ditto to you, Black...excellent the both of you...Nakofsky...I think you could've been killed a few times out there had those curses been real...you could use a little more work...I want you and Fiore to practice dueling together so you can strengthen each other..." Crouch said as he continued down the line.

"Well," he said as he finished looking over everyone, "not bad, not bad...as far as coordination goes, you all did pretty good...now, I've just looked over the rationale and judgment tests you all took...and as I see rationality and coordination as the most important aspects of being an auror, I've made my decision as to who will be selected as aurors....Alice Green and Frank Longbottom, congratulations."

Alice let out a small squeal as she jumped up and hugged Lily, who was standing next to her. Frank, who was being congratulated by James, quickly joined Alice and hugged her, before they stepped forward towards Crouch, who was looking at them warily.

"Now, now...you didn't win the lottery...while being an auror is quite prestigious and you are held as a member of the elite...you have a heavy set of responsibilities..."

"Right, right...of course...sorry..." Alice said quickly as she straightened up.

"Well, the rest of you will continue as trainees for the next year or so, or until I deem you ready to be able to handle the responsibilities as an auror. Alright, that's it for tonight."

Sirius frowned as he watched Crouch stalk away.

"Coming mate?"

"Er...yea, hold on..." Sirius replied, not bothering to turn around to James. He quickly made his way through the dispersing trainees and ran after Crouch.

"Crouch! Hey MR. CROUCH!" Sirius called after his boss, who stopped shortly and turned around.

"Mr. Black?"

"Er, yea...listen...Barty ol' boy..." Sirius said, smiling nonchalantly as he put an arm around Crouch. "Er"—Crouch stared at Sirius and then down at his shoulder, where Sirius's hand was—"I mean, Mr. Crouch...sir..." he said quickly as he removed his hand and stepped away from him.

"Um...listen...I was just wondering...how did you determine who gets to be aurors?"

"I explained to you all earlier, through the two exams you went through...reasoning and coordination..."

"Right...right...I know, but...why...why your specific choices?"

"You mean Frank and Alice?" Mr. Crouch asked.

"Yes...I mean...don't get me wrong, they're great...very skilled and talented...but I was just wondering why"—

"You didn't get picked?" Crouched finished for him.

Sirius sighed and nodded.

"I know you're used to getting top marks, Black...and being among the best at everything...wouldn't have accepted you otherwise...you did excellent on the coordination exam"—

"Didn't get hit once!" Sirius interjected.  
"Right...and that's highly commendable...but as far as the rationale and judgment exam went...I'm afraid I couldn't choose you..."

"What? I did badly on it?" Sirius asked with an air of skepticism.

"As a matter of fact, Sirius, yes, you did. After looking over your answers, I could easily deduce that you are quite a loose canon...and frankly, we can't have those sorts...you need a little more training and wising up before we can set you on your own."

"A loose canon??" Sirius asked indignantly, "How??"

"Well, as you know, all the questions were basically hypothetical situations, and how you would react in all of them...you seemed to make hasty, snappy decisions, without much reasoning behind your actions...without thinking much of the consequences..."

Sirius nodded.

"I'm sorry, Black..." Crouch said curtly, "but you needn't worry...with a little more training, I think you'll be ready in no time..."

And with that, Crouch walked away.

* * *

"Dominique, we are not inviting that buffoon to our wedding..." Sirius said a few days later over lunch.

"Oh come on," Dominique protested, "I know he's not the most agreeable fellow...but he's our boss! He already knows we're getting married, he might be offended if we don't invite him!"

"She's right about that..." Lily commented as she flipped through the Daily Prophet.

"I don't care..." Sirius said, frowning like a child.

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Anyway, inviting him might get us on his good side...well, get you on his good side...he doesn't mind me too much..." Dominique replied.

"Yea come on Sirius, you could use a few extra bonus points with the boss man," James said humorously, "and he's only one extra person out of the hundred people who are coming...you probably won't even notice him."

Sirius sighed. "True...well...I suppose we can"—

Just then flames and smoke burst out of the fireplace, and a tall figure was swirling in it.

Mad Eye Moody was standing in Sirius's living room. (a/n: I know it's an apartment, but w/e...they're wizards, alright??)

"Moody!" Sirius said quicky, "What are you"—

"What the"—Moody glanced around, only to see the entire gang staring at him. "Well, this makes my job easier...all you trainees...we need you right now...we've gotten a heads up that there's going to be several attacks today...a couple of muggle families, and four more half bloods...I want you to report to the ministry within five minutes. Five minutes, you understand??"

Kierra's eyes widened slightly. "I thought we weren't supposed to"—

"We're short of aurors...this is a massive attack, so the hell with the trainee thing right now, get a move on, now!!" Moody growled, "and Potter, I hear you've got an invisibility cloak, bring it with you!"

"Yes sir!" James said as he disapparated out of Sirius's flat.

"Alright, I'm gonna go back to Crouch and let him know I told you all...well, that was easy...you guys hang out together way too much..." he said to Dominique as he went back to the fireplace.

"Er...Mr. Moody, sir...do you need our help?" Remus asked, indicating at himself and Peter.

"Well son, as much as I'd like to take up on your offer, that power doesn't lie in my hands...and I could see old Barty having a fit for getting unauthorized help, who haven't been cleared by the ministry."

Remus nodded disappointedly.

"You two will be in the order, right? Crouch has probably informed Dumbledore by now of the circumstances...so he might send something your way...though I think it's unlikely considering how young you two are...anyway, best be on my way..." Moody said, tipping his bowler hat slightly as he flooed out of Sirius's flat.

* * *

"Alright, listen up..." Crouch said steely as he paced around his group of trainees. "I've got Alice and Frank gone with Emerson, one of our other aurors...Moody, you take D and the kid..."

The trainees looked around curiously at each other.

"Er...who's the kid?" Kierra asked.

"You, Nakofsky. Now move." Crouch said in his usual curt manner. "Black, Potter, and Evans, you're coming with me...we've got a wider terrain to cover..."

Crouch's voice droned on, but Kierra didn't seem to hear him.

'Kid...' Kierra thought menacingly, 'who do they think they are'—

"Let's go Nakofsky" Moody growled.

Kierra turned around to see Dominique and Moody waiting for her.

"Er, right..." she said as she joined them.

"Got your wand?" Moody asked, glancing briefly at Kierra.

"yea..." she answered listlessly, patting her pocket.

Moody stopped walking immediately. "Take that out of your pocket right now!" he barked. He then turned to Dominique. "Where's your wand?" he asked her.

"Er...here..." Dominique said cautiously, pulling her wand out of her pocket.

Moody sighed loudly. "Elementary wand safety, don't go keeping your wands in your pockets...specially your back pockets! It can ignite, or blow off a buttocks or something!"

Kierra couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

Moody glared at her in return.

"Think it's funny, kid? Well, don't start crying if that happens to you..."

At hearing her new nickname, Kierra stopped laughing. She turned to Moody and looked at him questioningly.

"You gonna ask me something or keep goggling at me?" Moody said, without so much as glancing at Kierra.

That damn eye....

"Er...yea...why am I the kid?" she asked huffily.

Moody continued on his way without looking at Kierra.

"Well, for starters, you look like one..."

"As compared to everyone else?" Kierra asked indignantly. "Half the trainees are the same age as me!"

"Yea but you look like more of a kid than the rest. Geez woman, don't take it as an insult...ten years from now when you're all wrinkly you'll be reminiscing over the days when people called you kid..." Moody replied.

"So just because I look like a kid"—

"And"—Moody cut in—"you're the underdog of the group."

"Sorry?"

"Every time Crouch recruits, he calls the most... naïve-looking, least promising one 'kid'".

"Least promising??" Kierra asked, feeling thoroughly hurt.

"Kierra's promising!" Dominique protested on Kierra's behalf. "She's a damn good witch"—

"I'm not saying she's not", Moody interjected, "Crouch just goes on first impressions....don't worry about it...some of our best aurors were called 'kid' at some point..."

"Really"—

"Listen, we need to get down to business," Moody cut in, "we're going to be staking out these next few hours...there's a house a couple of miles from here that we suspect is going to be attacked. We're going now, because we need to walk there"—

"Walk??" Dominique asked indignantly.

"Yea," Moody replied, "It's safer...this is a muggle area, and we can't risk apparating in front of them"—

"If they saw us we could just alter their memories"—

"Can't do that, there's a special department in the ministry that takes care of that" Moody replied.

"So why don't we call them over if it's necessary?" Dominique asked.

"Because we can't let them know...Dumbledore suspects a few of those blokes to be Voldemort's spies, so we can't really trust them."

"Does Crouch know? Or Mr. Fudge? They could just fire them"—

"No. Dumbledore only suspects them. And Crouch, well...he's a bit eccentric and well...merciless." He added, glancing shortly at Kierra.

"He'd throw them in Azkaban without even checking for evidence. He's that zealous about ridding the world of death eaters. So, naturally Dumbledore wants to be cautious when dealing with the ministry..."

"How many miles did you say this was?" Dominique asked as she turned her ankle for the 3rd time during the walk.

"Only two miles," Moody replied, glancing down at the Dominique's feet. "Why the hell are you wearing those clunkers anyway?" he asked sharply, "they're probably going to hold us back! Not to mention, you'll never be able to run in those if you need to..."

"Well, you only gave us five minutes to get ready!" Dominique protested, as she held onto Kierra for support as she almost tripped over the rocky terrain. "And they're not clunkers, they're called stilettos!"

"Look more like stilts to me...probably where they got the name from..." Moody muttered. "Take them off before you twist something, you're better off walking barefoot than walking in those..."

Dominique grumpily complied and pulled her heels off, muttering something about not appreciating Gucci as she did so.

"Of all the people Crouch could assign me, it just had to be the neurotic fashion critic and the kid..." Moody said wearily.

"So once we get there, what do we do?" Kierra asked testily.

"Like I said before, we're going to watch for any signs of death eaters...but I'm thinking at this rate, we won't have to wait long..." he said, casting a look at Dominique, who was walking daintily across the ground, careful not to step on any rocks.

"We have to make sure we're not seen by anyone; muggles or death eaters...if we see any death eaters, one of us is going to get the muggles out of the house, and into safety. Kierra, that'll be your job. You've got the two parents, an eight year old boy, and a three year old girl to worry about."

"Got it." Kierra said with a nod.

"And Dominique, you and I will distract and fight off the death eaters." Moody added.

"Got it." Dominique replied. "Er, how many of them do you think there will be?"

Moody shrugged. "Probably no more than five or six..."

"Five or six?? How are we supposed to take on all of them??" Dominique asked anxiously.

"Don't worry...if you can take care of at least one or two, that'll be great. And once the kid gets the family to safety, she can help out as well."

"Any idea who the death eaters are?" Kierra asked briskly, her temper being tested again.

"Well, we're pretty sure one of them might be Rudolphus Lestrange...he's supposed to be in the inner circle with Voldemort...and since he's most likely going to be there, there's a good chance his new wife will be there too, Bellatrix...she's supposed to have recently joined their ranks..."

"Bellatrix??" Kierra and Dominique said at once.

"Went to school with her?" Moody asked.

"She was in our year!" Kierra said.

"And she's Sirius's cousin!" Dominique exclaimed.

"I know..." Moody replied.

"I knew she was a bit rotten...but...wow...I didn't know she stooped that low...I mean, she's related to Sirius..." Dominique said.

"Yea, well...Sirius is about the only descent one in his family. Didn't you know what kind of line he came from?" he asked Dominique.

"Well..." she began slowly, "I knew they were all sort of...fanatics about purebloods...but I didn't think they supported Voldemort!"

"Well...some of them do, some don't...all I know is Bellatrix and her sister Narcissa are both as bad as they get...their other sister, Andromeda..well she's one of the few descent Blacks...got disowned for it too...she's dating some muggle named Ted Tonks..." Moody replied. "Nice guy...bit klutzy though..." he added as an afterthought.

"Yea, the whole Black family is a bit weird...all into the dark arts...even Sirius's brother Regalus, there's rumors that he's a death eater too now...but we haven't been able to confirm it yet..."

Dominique opened her mouth to comment, but was stopped by Moody.

"Alright, we're almost there...we need to disillusion ourselves...then you two are going to silently follow me through these woods, where we'll be less likely to be seen...remember, no talking until I've given you the o.k. when it's safe. Got it?"

Kierra and Dominique nodded as they pulled their wands out and disillusioned themselves.

For several minutes, the trio walked in silence. Finally, they came to a small clearing in the woods, where the house was barely visible to them. Two of the rooms on the bottom floor was lighted, while only one window from the upstairs remained lit.

"Ok," whispered Moody, "looks safe right now..."

"Wonder who's upstairs..." Kierra whispered. "Probably one of the kids..."

"Well it can't be the three year old," Dominique commented, "it's too late at night, she'd have to be asleep...so her lights can't be on..."

"Clever..." Moody whispered, patting Dominique on the shoulder approvingly.

Dominique blushed at Moody's idea of praise, but her adulation was short lived, when she felt Kierra grab Dominique's arm.

"Look!" she hissed.

Moody and Dominique glanced towards where Kierra was pointing; on the other side of the house, four heavily cloaked figures were walking towards the house, their identities concealed by black masks.

"Shit..." Moody muttered. "They're going through the bloody front door...there's no way we can get to the family. Alright guys...here's your moment..."

Dominique and Kierra looked at each other anxiously.

"When I say go..." Moody said quietly, "Kierra, you get the guy in the front, D, you get the one after him, and I'll get those other two that are trailing behind. If any of us gets hurt, don't stop...just do what we came here for. Got it?"

The girls nodded.

Kierra gulped and pulled out her wand and held it out. Her hand was shaking like mad. 'Stop it...' she thought anxiously. 'Be calm, be calm...if you're not calm, you'll screw up and get killed, or get someone else killed...'

Kierra nervously glanced over at Dominique, who, though was quite still, looked incredibly pale, even in the dim moonlight.

"Ready..." Moody whispered as he got up and leaned forward. "GO!!!"

Just as the four death eaters turned towards the noise, Moody, Dominique and Kierra dashed out into the open, still disillusioned. All at once, the front lawn became illuminated by jets of colorful lights.

Kierra ducked immediately as the death eater she was dueling hit a jet of green light at her.

"You just can't get enough of me, can you?" the voice behind the mask drawled.

Kierra felt as though she had been punched in the stomach. She knew that voice anywhere.

"Malfoy!!" she spat.

The death eater only chuckled. "And so it is!" he said, repelling a stunning charm Kierra had aimed at him. "And so wonderful to see you again, my dear...only this time, we're so fortunate as to meet outside of Hogwarts...away the bounds of Dumbledore...Aveda Kedavra!"

Kierra ducked again, just in time to miss the curse, and see it hit a nearby tree, sending it into flames.

Suddenly an idea came to Kierra. "You're pathetic Malfoy...absolutely"—Kierra stopped short and gasped, pointing to something beyond Lucius. The latter turned around to see what Kierra was gaping at, only to see nothing. Just as he realized he had been had, Lucius heard Kierra bellow—

"Petrifucus Totalus!!"

Kierra grinned at Malfoy, who was now laying frozen on the ground. "See, I fooled you twice...shame on you!" Kierra said to Lucius's frozen body. As she stepped over Lucius, Kierra couldn't help but grin. Ever since she the first day of school, when Kierra used the curse on Remus and messed it up, she hadn't rested until she mastered the petrifying curse...and now, she was quite the expert.

'that should last an hour or so..' she thought, as she glanced around to see the progress of the others. Just then she remembered her task.

Kierra turned around just in time to see the front door open, and a scandalized looking couple staring at the fiasco on their front lawn.


	31. Chapter 31: Cut

so sorry, the chapters somehow got really messed up...I tried fixing them up but then ended up screwing it up further...so here's what I ended up doing..putting chapters 31 and 32 in one chapter...so sorry about that!

Chapter 31: Cut

a/n: well, this chapter was absolutely painful to write, on a number of levels, so whichever way u interpret that is probably correct. ;) It seems like I'm never going to get to those damn wedding bells, I just keep delaying it, don't I? Well, I'm now looking at maybe 2 chapters from here…that's my goal.. J and after that, we get to fast forward a few years, and get to my favorite part (watch me get writers block right at that point…) alrighty, here u go, chapter 31/32 (oh yea, to the readers on fanfiction, I'm sorry about the formatting..they really butchered my last chapter, and for some reason they even took out random words from the text..so weird..):

Cut

Dominique fell hard on the moist grass, shaking from the pain.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" the man said to her. "How about another go, eh?"

Dominique looked up at the man as he raised his wand. His face was covered by the black mask, save his eyes. They were gray and unfathomable. They looked so familiar…

"Crucio!!"

Dominique rolled across the ground, just in time to avoid getting hit again.

"You're a quick one…" he said quietly, as he advanced on her. "Let's end this quickly, shall we? I'd hate to see the look on your dear fiancé's face if he found out you died a slow and painful death…"

"Sirius…" Dominique said with a small gasp, as she stared into the man's eyes.

"Yes, that would be him…" the man replied as he raised his wand again.

"You're"—

"Your would-be-brother-in-law…" the man replied as he pulled off his mask, revealing a handsome face that graced elegant features. His hair was jet black, falling neatly over his forehead.

"You're…Regalus!" Dominique exclaimed.

"Very good! I see my dear brother has told you about me…" Regalus replied coolly. He even sounded a bit like Sirius…

Regalus glanced down at Dominique, who was feeling the ground for her wand. Just as she had spotted it, Regalus snatched it out of her reach, and broke it in two.

"You won't be needing that, love." He said as he tossed the broken wand back on the grass. "Aveda—Ooof!!"

Regalus fell hard onto the ground as Dominique kicked her leg out and tripped him. He glanced up just in time to see Dominique pulling herself off the ground, and reaching for Regalus's wand.

"Oh no you don't!" he shouted, grabbing Dominique's leg and pulling her down. She toppled over and landed on top of Regalus. Not losing a second, Dominique made a grab for his wand. But just as she grabbed a hold of it, Regalus pushed Dominique off himself, only to fall forward on top of Dominique, as she tried to pry the wand out of his hand.

"Sirius would not like this at all…" Regalus said with the hint of a smile, as he heaved himself against Dominique, trying to wrestle for his wand.

"You—pig—" Dominique said through clenched teeth as she pulled on the wand with all her might.

Just then, sparks shot out of the wand, which to Dominique's luck, was pointing at Regalus, thus causing the latter to fly back several feet. Dominique pulled herself up immediately and shouted "Stupify!!"

Unfortunately, Dominique missed Regalus by about an inch. She took aim again, but turned around quickly as she heard Moody shout her name.

"What—SHIT!" Dominique screamed as she ducked a jet of green light, narrowly missing it.

Dominique stood up quickly, only to come face to face with one of the death eaters that Moody had been dueling.

"Congratulations on the engagement dear," said an all too familiar female voice. Bellatrix Black Lestrange….

"Awfully hurt that I'm not invited to my dear cousin's wedding…"

"What is this, a Black family reunion??" Dominique asked as she backed away from the death eater.

"I suppose you could call it that…" the woman replied. "Now why did you all have to come here, trying to spoil our fun?"

"Well, I—HEY!!! LET ME GO!!" Dominique shouted as she felt someone grab her from behind.

While Dominique had been occupied with Bellatrix, Regalus had snuck up on her and grabbed her by the arms.

"Get my wand!" Regalus shouted at Bellatrix.

The latter rushed up to Dominique and snatched the wand out of her hand. Just as she did so, Regalus shoved Dominique away as he reclaimed his wand.

"Shall we?" he asked, turning to Bellatrix.

"Lets." Bellatrix replied. "At the hands of two noble Blacks…you don't deserve this honor, Fiore. And yet, you'll get it anyway"—

"Over my dead body she will…" came a cold voice from behind them.

The three wheeled around, only to encounter a tall man with short, black hair, and the same gray, impenetrable eyes as Regalus…

"Sirius!" Dominique exclaimed.

"Lord, this is a Black family reunion…" Regalus said as he ducked a curse from Sirius. "Brother! Fancy seeing you here"—

"You're no brother of mine!" Sirius shouted as he advanced on Regalus.

Dominique glanced nervously at the men that were facing off. Sirius was a bit taller than Regalus, had shorter hair, and had a prominent jaw, but otherwise they looked almost identical…

Dominique's gaze suddenly shifted towards the figure of Bellatrix Lestrange, which was bolting towards the house.

"No!" Dominique shouted, as she dashed after Bellatrix, leaving the two Black brothers to themselves.

* * *

"Please you have to believe me!" Kierra pleaded, "I'm not with them, I'm not on their side! I'm trying to save you from them!"

"How am I supposed to believe that?" said a tall man with light brown hair, who guarded his wife and son behind him.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any proof, just please, come on!!!" Kierra shouted. Just then, the door burst open and Bellatrix Lestrange emerged at the door.

"Stay where you are!" Kierra shouted, pointing her wand at the intruder.

Bellatrix in return, only chuckled.

"I don't recall you having nearly as much confidence when we were in school!" she sneered as she aimed her wand at the father. "Now, out of my way!"

"Now do you believe me?!" Kierra exclaimed at the muggle family. "GET OUT OF HERE!!"

Kierra shouted "protego!" just as Bellatrix shouted "crucio!" Kierra fell backwards from the force of the curse, but the worst of it had missed her due to her protection charm.

The muggle family began to back away towards the back door, when suddenly—

"Kelly!!" the woman shouted. "Kelly's sleeping upstairs!!"

Bellatrix smiled and ran upstairs.

"Go, go, I'll get her!!" Kierra shouted as she ran after her.

Just then, Dominique burst into the house, causing the muggle mother and her son to scream.

"No! I mean no harm!" Dominique explained quickly. "Where'd the masked woman go??"

The man pointed to the stairs. "And a brown haired girl went after her. My little daughter's up there sleeping!!" he exclaimed.

"Kierra's up there? Ok, she'll take care of it…come on, we need to get you guys out of here…" Dominique said as she marched up to the family.

"What?? Where?? Not without Kelly!" the mother exclaimed.

"What's going on?? Mum you said there's no such thing as magic!!" the small boy cried.

"Look we'll explain everything later, right now we need to get you to a safe place…come along the back, there's a few more guys out in the front and we can't let them get you…" Dominique said urgently as she urged the family forward.

"But my daughter"—

"Kierra will get her"—

"The brown haired girl?"

"Yes, that's her…and as soon as I have you all in a safe place, I'll go help her…" Dominique said as the stepped outside.

Suddenly there was a piercing cry coming from inside the house. It was the sound of a little girl…

"My baby!!" The woman shouted, as she made to run back inside the house.

"No!!" Dominique shouted, catching the woman by the arm. "I'll go…Look, just stay put"—Dominique glanced around frantically, searching for a good hiding place—"here, stay hidden in the woods…watch out for any of the masked people…er, wait…and that one black haired guy…well, there's two of them, and they look kind of alike…damn…ok, just stay hidden from everybody…and uh, don't be afraid of the guy with the funky eye, he's on our side…" Dominique said quickly as she rushed back towards the house.

As she ran up the stairs, it suddenly occurred to Dominique that she didn't even have a wand. Well, she had managed to escape Regalus without a wand…but then again, Sirius had shown up…

Suddenly, Dominique heard a scream from the outside. It was the mother….

Dominique turned around immediately and ran back outside.

'Oh God no…no…this can't be happening…' Dominique thought to herself as she ran back towards the woods, eyeing the figure of Regalus, standing over a small body that lay on the ground.

"John!!" the mother wailed as she dropped to her knees and sobbed. "Not John…"

"YOU"—Dominique ran towards the group, forgetting she was unarmed, and that Regalus was.

As Dominique charged at him, Regalus only grinned at her before putting on his mask, and disapparating.

Dominique stopped at the place where Regalus stood milliseconds before. She glanced down at the couple, who were kneeling by the body of their eight year old son.

"I'm so sorry…" Dominique whispered as she knelt down next to them. The parents did not look at her at first. But suddenly, the mother looked up urgently at Dominique.

"My daughter…"

Dominique stood up immediately. "Stay here…" she said. Just as Dominique was about to take off, a surge of green light filled one of the windows on the top floor of the house.

'Oh God…Please don't be dead Kierra…please don't be dead Kelly…' Dominique thought frantically as she bolted up the stairs. Halfway up, she stopped in her tracks. There standing triumphantly at the top of the stairs was Bellatrix, pointing her wand at Dominique.

"You're too late, Fiore." She said, grinning slyly. "And now, a little wedding gift I'd like to send your way…Aveda kedavra!!"

Just as the words left Bellatrix's mouth, Dominique tried backing away, only to topple down the stairs, feeling the heat of the green jet of light shoot narrowly past her shoulder as she went down. As she hit the ground, she heard a distinct popping sound, and looking up, Dominique saw that Bellatrix had disapparated, probably under the impression that she had killed Dominique.

Dominique pulled herself up, and rubbing her hip on which she landed, she listened closely. Absolute silence. Clutching her hip, Dominique slowly made her way up the stairs, fear rising in her with each painful step. Had Bellatrix managed to kill both of them? But with one curse…well...it was possible…

Dominique stopped short as she entered the bedroom. She had expected it…but still could not believe it. Three year old Kelly lay motionless on the floor. Kierra, who didn't acknowledge Dominique's presence, knelt by the girl, her gaze fixed on the lifeless body, her eyes glazed with tears.

"Kierra…" Dominique murmured as she limped over and knelt by her friend. Kierra still made no response.

"I'm so sorry Kierra…" Dominique said again, putting an arm around her.

"It's all my fault…" Kierra whispered, as she ran a finger along Kelly's tiny hand.

"No, don't say that…it's not"—

"She did it right in front of me too…I watched her go…I let her kill a baby…"

"Kierra…please, stop saying that…"

"You weren't there!!" Kierra shouted as she cried freely. "You don't know"—Kierra paused as a shadowy figure appeared at the doorway.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…" Kierra murmured again as Moody took a few steps inside the room.

"Come on guys…we need to go now…" Moody said quietly.

"Go where?" Kierra asked. "What about the family? Where is everyone?"

"We need to get to the ministry to report to Crouch…and the death eaters all got away…the boy got killed too…just the parents made it…" Moody replied dismally.

"Are they"—

"Some other ministry officials are here, along with muggle police…they're going to sort this out accordingly...but our work here is done…let's go…" Moody finished.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, in a small isolated room in the ministry of magic, the trainees had gathered in wait of Mr. Crouch.

"Today was so weird…" Lily said quietly as she hugged herself. "It was all so surreal…"

James nodded. "I can't believe that git is with Voldemort now…I always knew he was rotten, but it still comes as a surprise…our own classmates…"

"Who did you guys see on your stakeout?" one of the other trainees named Jacob inquired.

"Snivellus" James and Sirius said together.

Lily only glanced at them shortly, but made none of her usual reprimands for name calling.

"Was everything o.k. with that muggle family that Moody, D and Kierra were supposed to watch?" Lily asked, turning to Sirius.

Sirius shook his head.

"The parents made it out ok, but the two kids got killed…" he said slowly.

Lily's mouth fell open slightly, her eyebrows raised in utter shock. She shook her head slowly.

"That's terrible…"

"I know…" Sirius replied.

"Did you see which death eaters came?" James asked.

Sirius nodded. "Cousin Bellatrix, her new husband Rudolphus, Lucius Malfoy, and Regalus…"

"Your brother??" Lily asked. Sirius threw a glare at her before shifting his gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry…" she said quickly. "I didn't mean…"

Sirius shook his head. "As far as I'm concerned, he's not my family. And what he did out there was unforgivable. He and Bellatrix were about to kill Dominique when I showed up…"

Just then, the door opened and Kierra and Dominique appeared.

"Hey guys"—Lily said as she ran to join them—"you guys ok?? D, why are you barefoot?"

"Took my shoes off..lost them somewhere in the woods I think…" Dominique replied listlessly.

Lily glanced at Kierra, who was frowning, but at no one in particular.

"Kierra, are you ok"—Lily stopped as Dominique shook her head vigorously—"right then…" Lily backed away and let them continue walking.

"I'm gonna go and…freshen up…" Kierra said slowly as her friends spotted them and began to walk towards them.

"Alright…go ahead…" Dominique replied. She watched Kierra retreat to the restroom, but quickly shifted her gaze to the person who had grabbed her arm.

"Sirius"—

"Are you alright?" Sirius asked urgently. "Did he do anything to you?"

"Er"—

"Just tell me and I'll pound him…no…I'll kill him, bring him back to life, and kill him some more!" Sirius said angrily.

"No, he didn't do anything," Dominique replied, "just broke my wand, but that's all…"

"Well, I'll break his neck the first chance I get…" Sirius replied.

Suddenly the door creaked open and the aurors, led by Mr. Crouch, walked in. Among the aurors was Frank Longbottom, who clutched the hand of a very pale-looking Alice Green. The last one in the procession of aurors was Mad Eye Moody, who shut the door when everyone had filed in.

The room fell silent immediately, and all of the trainees stood up straighter, anxiously awaiting Mr. Crouch's words.

"Very bad night…" Mr. Crouch began, shaking his head. "Of course we've had worse…but all the same…a night with innocent lives lost is always a bad night"—Crouch paused as he saw Kierra reenter the room. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were puffy—"and some of you will be reaping the consequences for your actions, or lack thereof…." He added curtly.

"First, I want to express my relief, and offer my compliments to our two new aurors, Alice and Frank; after their dealings with he-who-must-not-be-named"—there was a sharp intake of breath from several of the trainees.

"They saw him??" a short, blond trainee named Helen asked incredulously.

Mr. Crouch nodded. "And narrowly escaped him…quite a feat for a young witch and wizard."

Everyone's eyes fell on the couple. Frank had gone slightly pink at being singled out, while Alice was still looking pale, still quite shaken up from the encounter.

"Now…let's get on with the bad stuff first…as some of you might already know…we suffered a couple of muggle casualties tonight…two children were killed tonight…as the result of some negligence on the part of one of our trainees"—

Dominique cleared her throat. "Mr. Crouch"—

"Don't interrupt me, Fiore." Mr. Crouch said brusquely, "but now that you have…that puts me in mind"—Mr. Crouch reached inside his cloak and pulled out his wand. He waved it swiftly, and instantly a pair of dirt-stained Gucci stilettos materialized in his hands.

Mr. Crouch extended the shoes to Dominique, who nervously stepped up and collected them.

"From here on out, please observe the following dress code while on the job. Both males and females are to wear pants underneath their cloaks, and comfortable running shoes, at ALL times, in order to ensure swift and easy movement. Do I make myself clear?"

The trainees nodded at once.

"Do I make myself clear, Fiore?" Mr. Crouch asked her.

Dominique nodded, coloring slightly from the chastisement.

"Now, as I was saying, before I was interrupted…the deaths we suffered today were due to the carelessness of a trainee. This can never, ever, happen again. Do you all understand??" Mr. Crouch asked.

Again, all of the trainees nodded their heads vigorously.

"Now…" Mr. Crouch started again, walking up to Kierra and Dominique, "you two I believe, were assigned to Moody, am I right?"

The girls nodded.

"And they were with me til the end, Crouch…" Moody interjected.

"No denying that," Mr. Crouch replied, "and I believe I gave you respective assignments to each of these trainees. Am I right?"

"Yea…"

"I told you to have Dominique help you take care of the death eaters, and to have the kid get the family to safety. Did you follow through with my orders?"

"She's not a kid"—

"Did you follow through with my orders??" Crouch repeated.

Moody sighed. "Yea, I gave 'em those instructions…" Moody said irritably.

Crouch returned his attention to Kierra.

"And did you do as you were told?" Crouch asked.

"Yes"—

"Then why do we have two dead children?!" Crouch retorted. "When I said to protect the family, I meant the entire family!!"

"I tried"—Kierra protested, her eyes began to well up again with tears—"I really did! But they all going towards the front door, and there were four of them and only three of us, I had to help out!!"

"If I think Moody and Fiore are capable of taking on four death eaters, then they are!! You are not one to judge"—

"Crouch, if you don't mind," Moody interjected in the same irritable voice, "I told her to get one of them, because I KNEW that D and I couldn't take on four death eaters. And just so you know, Kierra petrified Malfoy"—

"Well, he got away though didn't he??"

"Yea, but that stalled him, didn't it? We had one less person to worry about for a while."

"Well let me congratulate you, Miss Kierra, on being able to perform elementary curses on a death eater" Crouch said sarcastically, "and after my group was done, I had sent Mr. Black to help you lot out…and clearly that wasn't enough??"

"Excuse me…sir?" Dominique interrupted, "I just wanted to say, it's not her fault, really…I mean, the boy…that was my fault…I had rushed them out of the house and told them to hide in the woods, and I went back in the house to help Kierra get the little girl…but right when I turned my back…Reg—Regalus came and killed him…"

"As noble as it is of you to take the blame, Fiore, getting the family to safety was NOT your task...and if anything, I wanted to commend you. Despite your blunders, I'm very impressed at how you handled yourself without a wand." "But anyway," he said quickly, "the task of saving the family…that responsibility lies with Kierra"—

"And I accept responsibility for it." Kierra finished. Everyone turned to look at her.

Dominique looked at her curiously while Crouch glared at her, while Moody's magical eye focused on Kierra's eyes.

"I didn't mean to…I tried my best…" Kierra said slowly, "I was trying to get the family to safety, but I was having a hard time of convincing them that I wasn't out to kill them"—

"Why didn't you just silence them?" Crouch asked.

"Oh…it didn't occur to me…I'm sorry, everything was going so fast and I hardly got time to think…I mean, Bellatrix just came bursting in…and she aimed a curse at the dad, but I deflected it…and when they were about to run out, the mum said her daughter was sleeping upstairs…Bellatrix obviously heard, so she ran up the stairs…and I went after her…"

"By the time I got to Kelly's room," Kierra continued, "Bellatrix was there, holding her, with her wand pointed at her. She threatened me that if I moved, she'd kill her."

"And so you moved??" Crouch asked.

"No! I didn't know what to do at first…I know Bellatrix well enough to know that she wouldn't hesitate to kill if I moved…but then I thought to disarm her…but she got to me first…she disarmed me…and then…she…she killed her…" Kierra said, choking on her last few words.

Crouch simply nodded slowly.

"And then she disapparated?" he asked finally.

Kierra shook her head through her tears. "She was about to kill me too…but then she heard someone running downstairs, so she knocked me over and ran to see who it was…and it was Dominique, she tried to kill her too…I heard her shout aveda kedavra, and then disapparate…but then I heard Dominique get up so I knew she had missed…"

Mr. Crouch glanced at Dominique, who nodded to confirm the story.

"Is that it?" he asked.

Kierra nodded. "I'm sorry!" she cried, "You have no idea how"—

"I've got plenty of ideas!" Crouch cut in, "I know all of the gruesome, bloody and graphic details! I've been in this business for years now, and I've seen it all, kid! And if you're going to turn into a human hosepipe after witnessing only one death, of a complete stranger"— Mr. Crouch stopped and observed Kierra. She was crying silently now; tears fell down her now very pale face…her eyes were incredibly puffy and red, her soft brown hair was disheveled and out of her normal ponytail. She looked like a naïve young child who'd had the nightmare of her life.

Mr. Crouch shook his head. "Listen…kid…" he said slowly, in a calmer voice, "I know it must have been really hard to deal with what you had today…I understand, and it's ok…but, see…if you want to be an auror, you need to have stronger nerves than that. What you saw today was nothing compared to stuff we've seen in the past…and nothing to what you lot might see later…we need people who are built tough, who can endure all the emotional trauma…"

Kierra looked Mr. Crouch in the eye timidly, but didn't say anything. Crouch in return frowned slightly, with the slightest indication of sympathy, before turning to Moody and nodding to him.

"If you don't mind, Alastor, please escort Miss Nakofsky"—

"Right." Moody cut him off quickly. "Er…come with me…" he said to Kierra.

He walked over to the door and held it open for her. Kierra, knowing very well where this was heading, let out a small sigh before heading towards the door. As she passed by her former colleagues, she could feel everyone's stares; and it made her face burn with shame and embarrassment. In front of all these people…in front of her friends…and what was worse…she knew she deserved it.

"Listen kid," Moody said as they walked down an empty corridor, "and I mean that in a nice sense," he added quickly, "Sorry your night on the job was horrible…and sorry Crouch was being an ass about it…he's usually like that…" he paused, but Kierra made no comment, so he continued, "but listen, don't take it personally…being an auror is a tough job…I bet half these kids are going to get cut too in a matter of weeks…just don't feel too bad about it, things weren't really in your control. Anyway you're still in the order, and no doubt Dumbledore is much more cool-headed and wiser than Crouch and the ministry combined. Just don't take Crouch's words to heart. Got it?"

Kierra shrugged.

Moody shifted his magical eye on Kierra as they reached the exit door of the Ministry. "Listen, it's not every day I go soft and sensitive for you kids, it's not something I'm particularly fond of…so you better take heed to what I'm telling you. Got it?" he asked again, a bit more gruffly.

Kierra looked him in the eyes and nodded. "Thanks" she said quietly.

"Alright, well…I need to get back to the meeting. You'll be ok from here, or do you need a guard…just to be safe"—

"I'll be ok…"

"Go ahead and disapparate right in front of me…just to be on the safe side." Moody said.

Kierra sighed quietly. Usually Moody's over-vigilance was a bit amusing, but now it just proved to be annoying. She wanted to wander around the streets for a while….

"Alright…" Kierra replied curtly. She stepped outside into the cold night and turned to face Moody. "Thanks for being nice to me, Moody…"

Moody only shrugged and return. "Well…you remind me of my younger sister…"

Kierra looked up at Moody, slightly startled. She had never even imagined him to have any relations. "You have a sister?" she asked.

"had…she was killed years ago…"

"oh"—

"Go on now…" Moody said tersely

Kierra nodded. "Night…"

And with that, Kierra disapparated.

* * *

Kierra apparated into her house. She pulled out her wand and muttered "lumos". Quickly, she lit a few lights around the living room. It was completely silent. Kierra shivered as she looked around. Her parents were still in Bulgaria…her parents…oh, how disappointed they'd be with her…They were so proud of her for qualifying to be an auror, and here she was, kicked out on the first day of real work…

Kierra looked at the clock. It was nearly 1:00 am. Dominique was staying with her, but she had no idea how long it would be before she'd get back….

Kierra sighed. She was tired out, but she didn't want to be alone…not tonight…

'Well,' she thought, 'only one place to go…' and with that, Kierra extinguished all of the house lights, wrote a quick note for Dominique, and walked over to the fireplace. Taking some floo powder, she stepped inside.

"Number Seventeen, Winterhaven Court!" she shouted as she dropped the powder.

Within seconds, Kierra landed hard on the ground. Struggling to breathe, and praying she didn't wake anyone up, Kierra pulled herself up and quickly cleaned up her mess from the fireplace.

When she had finished, she stood in the dark, empty living room, listening for noise. Good…she hadn't woken anyone up… Kierra wondered if turning on some lights would cause disturbance…she thought the better of it, and decided to feel her way up the stairs…it couldn't be that hard; after all, she had spent almost a week in this house, she knew her way around it…

Kierra slowly made her way up the steps and into the hall. 'very last door on the right…' she told herself as she tiptoed quietly down the hall. To her surprise, light was peaking from underneath the closed door…so, he was still awake…

Just then, the door swung open, and Kierra was standing face to face with none other than Remus Lupin, who was pointing his wand at her.

"Kierra!" he said all too loudly. His eyes widened in disbelief as he quickly covered his mouth.

"Kierra!" he said again in whispered tones. "What are doing here??"

Kierra stared at Remus, not knowing what to say exactly.

"How'd work go? Is everything ok??" he asked.

Kierra opened her mouth to say no, but before the words could come out, her throat tightened up and she began to cry.

"Shh…shhh…" Remus said half-soothingly, half-anxiously, pulling her into his room and shutting the door, putting an imperturbable charm on it as he did so. He sat her down on his bed and gently took her hands in his. "What happened?" he asked softly.

Kierra sighed heavily and began to recount the night's events to him.

"I mean…I've known people who've died…but I've never actually seen death before…" Kierra said as she tossed another crumbled up tissue on the floor. "It was horrible…Remus, she was so little…she didn't deserve it…"

"I know, I know she didn't," he murmured, "no one so innocent deserves a fate like that…"

"It's all because of me!" Kierra sobbed, "I should've disarmed her first"—

"Kierra, listen to me"—Remus put his arms around her, and drew her in closer to him—"right now, blaming yourself is the easiest thing to do…you can just feel guilty and pity yourself…but you know it's not your fault…ultimately, it's Bellatrix…she was the one who killed Kelly…she's the murderer…she should be punished for it, not you! You were just trying to save her, but it didn't work out…it's not your fault…"

Kierra shook her head. "It is!! It was my damn job! I was supposed to protect her! And now…I just can't get her out of my head…I just keep seeing her face…she was so small…and how she just screamed…and dropped…dead…it was so eerie…"

Remus continued to hold Kierra, gently rocking her back and forth in his arms, trying to soothe her. Her crying had now diminished to quiet sobs. She shook her head. "I deserved to get cut…I'm so worthless…but it was humiliating"—

"Hey, you're not worthless"—

"Yes I am! I can't do anything"—

"Kierra, just because you can't be an auror, doesn't make you worthless"—

"Yes it does"—

"Do you think I'm worthless?"

Kierra's heart seemed to have skipped a few beats. She turned to look Remus in the eyes.

"No, of course not…but your case is different…it's not your fault"—

"Well, it's not your fault either—and don't tell me that it is…"

Kierra shrugged. "Well it is…"

Remus sighed. "Listen Kierra, no one said being an auror is easy, it's tough work"—

"yea, Crouch already explained that to me…" Kierra said quietly.

"Ok, all asshole-ness aside, maybe he's got a point…" Remus said gently. "Maybe it just doesn't fit with your personality…you have the sweetest disposition…you're warm, and tender…and so good-natured…you don't exactly fit the rough and tough image of an auror, I suppose…and that's not a bad thing either…"

Kierra shrugged. "I guess…"

Remus watched Kierra blow her nose, crumpling up the last tissue and tossing it on the floor. He rubbed her gently on the back and sighed.

"Come on, you need some sleep. You've had a long night…"

Kierra looked at the floor, staring intently at the pile of Kleenexes by her feet. "I can't…I keep thinking about her…she's going to give me nightmares"—

"shh…" Remus held her once more, this time slowly pulling her down against his bed. He leaned over her and with one arm, pulled her legs onto the bed. "Go to sleep, Kierra…" he said as he pulled his comforter over her to tuck her in.

Kierra looked up at Remus. "Will you stay here with me?" she asked.

Remus smiled slightly. "Of course." And with that, Remus extinguished the lights in his room, and laid down next to her.

"Thank you…" Kierra murmured as she curled up against Remus and closed her eyes.

"No problem…" Remus whispered.

Several minutes later just as he had begun to drift off, Remus began to feel wetness against his chest. He glanced down at Kierra, who had rested her head against him, and saw that she was crying silently.

Words no longer seeming to be of any use, Remus ran his fingers through her hair, gently combing through it continually, until he was positive that Kierra had fallen asleep. Soon after, Remus had drifted to sleep as well…

* * *

Morning arrived all too quickly for Remus. He let out a small groan as he tried to shift his position in bed, but to no avail; something was in his way. He opened his eyes, only to be facing a sleeping Kierra, and the memories of the previous night came rushing back to him. Remus closed his eyes and sighed resignedly as he slouched back into his original position in order to ensure Kierra's comfort. He glanced down at her. She looked so peaceful when she slept, it was just amazing…Indeed he had had been intimate with Kierra on so many occasions, but until this morning, he had never woken up next to her, and frankly, he liked it a lot, even if it wasn't in the happiest of events…

Just then Remus's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Remus! It's almost noon! Wake up!!" he heard his mum from behind the door.

"I'm up…I'm up…" Remus replied groggily, "I'll be down in a few minutes, mum.."

However, just as Remus sat up in his bed, the door opened.

"You know Remus, it's really not like you to wake up so late, and OH MY GOD!" Mrs. Lupin bellowed.

"Mum!" Remus hissed. He put a finger to his mouth, begging her to hush, which she surprisingly did. And to his even greater surprise, Kierra hadn't so much as even stirred in her sleep from the noise.

"Nothing happened, mum," Remus said quickly, "I swear…she just slept here, that's all"—

Mrs. Lupin nodded. "I believe you…" she said as she observed the floor. A mountain of tissues was situated at the foot of the bed. She glanced up curiously at her son.

"Er…what happened? Was everything ok at the ministry?" she asked, remembering how Remus told her and Mr. Lupin last night about Kierra's work.

Remus sighed. "Saw a little girl get killed…and she got fired…" he said quietly as he stroked Kierra's head. "Bad night for her…"

Mrs. Lupin nodded sympathetically as she glanced at Kierra's face. She had dark circles under her eyes, and a red nose, undoubtedly from crying and sniffing, and her cheeks were still tear-stained.

"Everything alright in here?"

Remus looked up and saw his father in the doorway. He looked at Kierra, but then shifted his gaze to his son, looking at him questioningly.

"Oh…well"—

Mrs. Lupin took her husband by the arm and led him out of the room. "Why don't we stroll over to Diagon Alley, dear…lets leave them alone…" Remus could hear his mother say as they walked down the hall.

Remus sighed gratefully as he pulled himself out of bed, carefully as to not disturb Kierra. He glanced back at her and smiled slightly as he headed out of his room to go make breakfast for her.

* * *

a/n: I think this one is kinda short..but I just wanted to put something up b/c I felt bad for taking so long..lol sorry im not stuck w/ writers block, im just really busy and never have time to write...actually i still dont have time, im just neglecting my studies right now ;) hope u like...I was aiming for more angst..but i realized its not the best time..its gona fit somewhere else much better..ok nm u dont know what im talking about, u havent even read the chapter..lol

* * *

Chapter 33: Moving On

Kierra closed her eyes and inhaled, taking in the smell of the French toast that Remus was working on at the stove.

"I don't know, Remus…I was never a brilliant student…never took much of an interest in my studies…" Kierra said as she opened her eyes and picked up her quill from the table and began to doodle on the parchment Remus had given her.

"That's rubbish Kierra," he replied as he aimed his wand at the frying pan and forced the toast to flip over, "you were a very good student"—

Kierra dropped her quill and looked squarely at Remus. "But you didn't even like me until this year…you always thought I was a complete ditz"—

Remus glanced shortly at Kierra, slightly startled by her interjection, before turning back to preparing their brunch.

"Well, that was before I got to know you…" he said slowly, "I misjudged you, and I'm sorry for that. Anyway, if you were such an idiot, you wouldn't have graduated from Hogwarts, nor would you have been accepted as an auror in the first place"—

"But"—

"Nor would Dumbledore have invited you to join the order," Remus said firmly, "I'm afraid you're anything but ditzy, whether you like it or not."

Kierra raised an eyebrow at him. He in return only sighed resignedly.

"Oh alright, you have your moments…but you know, I like that about you. It makes you human…and likeable, and very cute." Remus said as he brought a plate of French toast to the kitchen table and took a seat across from Kierra.

Kierra smiled half-heartedly as she helped herself to toast.

"You know, you were really good in Ancient Runes…and you were awfully fond of the subject too…" Remus continued when Kierra wouldn't speak.

"Yea, I suppose…"

"And history of magic…"

"You said that was a useless, blow off class that people took to get an easy A…"

Remus looked at her curiously. "When did I say that?"

"The night before our first day of school last year…" Kierra replied.

"Oh…" Remus sighed exasperatedly. "Must you remember everything I say? I didn't really mean it"—

"Yes you did"—

"I didn't know you liked it"—

"Remus you don't have to change your mind just because of what others think, honestly. You can be so compliant sometimes…" Kierra snapped.

Remus, who looked taken aback for an instant, smiled a moment later. "You say that as if it's a bad thing…"

Kierra's expression softened at his reply. "It's not…but…you know, too much of anything is bad…"

"I suppose you're right about that", Remus replied, "but I'm not that compliant. I mean, I can stand my own ground"—Remus stopped and frowned as Kierra sniggered—"What? I can!!"

"Of course you can…" Kierra replied.

"Do I smell sarcasm?" Remus asked.

"Maybe…just a little…" Kierra said as she picked up her quill and began drawing again.

"I really can stand my own ground"—

"And I believe you." Kierra finished.

"No you don't…"

"Hey aren't we supposed to be talking about my pathetic life here?" Kierra interjected.

"Oh that's right…"

"Thanks a million, Remus."

"Anytime…"

Just then two popping noises sounded and Mr. and Mrs. Lupin apparated into the kitchen.

"Oh, hello kids!" Mrs. Lupin said as she and her husband set their shopping bags on the table. "How are you doing Kierra?"

"Oh! I'm well, thank you…" Kierra replied awkwardly. Why didn't they seem surprised to see her at their house? 'Oh God…' Kierra thought miserably as she realized that they might have seen her sleeping in Remus's bed…and Remus had to explain to them what happened to her while she was still asleep…

"Glad to hear it…" Mrs. Lupin replied.

Kierra shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Mr. and Mrs. Lupin bustled around the kitchen, putting groceries away. Every few moments one of them would glance back at her, looking somewhat sympathetic.

'Oh bloody hell…they know…' Kierra thought.

"Lovely drawing, dear" Mrs. Lupin said as she looked over Kierra's shoulder. On her parchment Kierra had begun to doodle, but later turned her doodles into a vase of flowers that almost perfectly mirrored the vase that sat in front of her on the kitchen table. "You've really got a knack for art, haven't you?" Mrs. Lupin continued. "Do you paint as well?"

"Oh, yes. I like it all, really. Drawing, painting, sculpting…It's what I do when I'm not busy…or when I'm supposed to be busy doing something else…" Kierra added with a grin, reminiscing of her school notebooks that always seemed to have had more doodles and drawings than they had lecture notes.

"Well, let's add that to your list of strong subjects then" Remus said.

"Art?" Kierra asked uncertainly.

"Yea…you could always become a professional artist, and get commissioned to make portraits or something…"

Kierra let out a hollow laugh. "More like a starving artist…it's not the most stable work out there…"

"That's true," Mr. Lupin commented as he picked up the Daily Prophet from the table and studied the front cover, "probably not the most practical career out there…"

Kierra sighed. "All of my favorite subjects are useless and impractical…I mean, what does one do with ancient runes and magical history?"

Mr. Lupin looked up from his paper and at Kierra. "You know, an old friend of mine, he passed on a few years ago, he was an expert on deciphering runes. He was actually a language expert as well…knew about twenty languages…Anyway, he worked as a curator at the British Museum of Magic. It's a small ways out of London…not too far away. Most wizards that I've known who are interested in magical history and whatnot usually work in places like museums or other big research institutes."

"Really? That actually sounds kind of interesting…" Kierra said.

"Yes, and once you gain enough experience and knowledge, you can always go on to teach somewhere if you wanted. I daresay that Runes professor at Hogwarts is getting pretty old. Perhaps in a few years he'll snuff it and"—

"David! What an impolitic thing to say!" Mrs. Lupin exclaimed, shooting a warning look at her husband, causing Remus, Kierra and Mr. Lupin to snigger. However, they were suddenly cut short when Mr. Lupin began to cough fitfully.

"Really, David, you ought to go see a healer!" Mrs. Lupin said with a frown as she pat her husband on the back.

"Nonsense"—he choked through his coughs—"I'm as fit as a fiddle; It's just a small cough"—

"It's anything but small, David. And it sounds quite unnatural if you ask me"—

"Well what do you know, I wasn't asking you…" Mr. Lupin replied with a hint of irritableness. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some work to catch up with. I'll be in my study, I'm not to be disturbed."

As Mr. Lupin left, Kierra glanced at Remus questioningly.

"Dad has too much pride to go see a healer...he doesn't like being helped with anything." Remus explained.

"Mmm…like father like son, I suppose." Kierra said teasingly as she got up.

"What?" Remus asked, getting up quickly from his seat. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Kierra grinned. "It means I have to go now and I wanted to leave you some stuff to fume over."

"First I'm overly compliant, now I'm stubborn?"

"Exactly…now, if you don't mind, I'm going to head back to my place. I can just see Dominique flooing over to everyone's houses in search of me…Anyway I need to write my parents to tell them about…well, everything that's happened since yesterday…and I need to get some career advice…"

"Alright…I'll be seeing you later then. Take care of yourself." Remus said.

"I will. Oh, and uh...thanks for being there for me, and…well, thanks for everything…" Kierra said quietly to Remus as Mrs. Lupin had begun to busy herself in the pantry.

"No problem" Remus replied. He leaned closer to her and gave her a kiss before she smiled and disapparated out of the kitchen.

"Nice girl…" Mrs. Lupin commented as she came out of the pantry with a bottle of dark green liquid.

"Mum…were you eavesdropping?" Remus asked.

"Of course! And don't look at me like that, it's my job you know!" Mrs. Lupin retorted as she popped the top off the bottle she was holding.

"Er…mum, what is that?"

"Oh, just a little potion I'm going to slip into your father's afternoon tea...it's for his cough."

Remus rolled his eyes as he headed out of the kitchen.

"And you better not say a word to him, Remus!" Mrs. Lupin called after him.

"Don't worry about it, I won't!"

* * *

"Wormtail! Finally!" James exclaimed several days later as his friend apparated in front of him.

"Yes, it's about time, Wormy," Sirius said impatiently, "You're over an hour late. What took you so long?"

"Oh, sorry about that," Peter replied as he rested his briefcase on the floor of Sirius's flat, "but…uh…Crassus wouldn't let me leave until I finished the security charms on a bunch of vaults, and double check them to make sure they worked…"

"How very nice of him…" James commented.

Peter shrugged. "Goblins aren't particularly fond of wizards…"

"Bunch of nutters…" Sirius muttered.

"Sirius, that isn't very nice!" Lily retorted, casting a glare at him. Sirius ignored this chastisement and stared out the kitchen window looking quite bored. James, who spotted this, grinned at his friend.

"Tired of us already, Mr. Padfoot? Maybe Moody's right…we all spend way too much time here…" he said.

Sirius looked at James earnestly. "What? That's rubbish…you guys don't spend enough time here!"

"Padfoot, we come here almost every day!" Peter said with a laugh.

Sirius shrugged. "Yea…well…I guess it's just weird seeing you all only a few times a week, when I've been so used to seeing you 24/7".

"I know what you mean…" Lily replied, "I'm so used to having Kierra, Alice or Dominique, or all three of them at once, up in my face…and when I'm at home I'm used to fighting with Petunia…but now I have none of that…it's quite nice, actually…"

"Lily, you're too kind…" came a voice behind her. Lily turned around only to see Dominique coming out of the bathroom with a wry grin on her face.

"I still love you though!" Lily replied.

"I'm sure…" Dominique replied as she sat down next to her friend "Remus and Kierra aren't back yet?" she asked as she glanced around the room.

Sirius sighed. "I told them to just apparate outside the restaurant…but no…they have to take the long way and walk…"

"I thought you said the restaurant was down the street…" James said.

"It is! Maybe I should go down there and check on them…"

Sirius got up and went to the door. Just as he opened it, a look of slight revulsion overtook his face. There in the hallway was Kierra and Remus, looking quite occupied.

"Ewww…." James sneered. At hearing this, they immediately pulled away from each other.

"Oh hey guys!" Kierra said a little too perkily.

"you know, this is getting really old…walking in on you two whilst you're snogging…think of something more original!" Sirius said as he took the paper bags from Kierra.

"So sorry…we'll try better next time…" Remus said apologetically as he nodded at his friends upon entering Sirius's flat.

"Oh you know what would be absolutely wicked?" continued James, "if we were to walk in on them…while they're having…a conversation!"

Everyone in the room fell into laughter except Kierra and Remus.

"I mean, do you guys ever talk?" James continued.

Kierra rolled her eyes in response. "Of course we do!"

"Really…what do you guys talk about?"

"Er…."

"Stuff!" Remus said.

"Stuff?" Sirius asked innocently. "What kind of stuff?"

"Er…"

"Good answer, Moony" James said. "not as evasive as Kierra's reply…"

"We talk about...school...and stuff..." Kierra said.

"But we're done with school...how could you possibly want to talk about that?" Lily asked.

"Oh that's right..." Kierra mttered.

"Face it you two. You have nothing in common except your love for making out...now, let's get started on this dinner, I absolutely love Italian…" Sirius said as he opened the containers of food. "Er, you guys didn't do anything that might've contaminated"—

"No!" Remus and Kierra retorted at once.

"Ok, ok…just asking…"

"And that's not true at all..." Kierra added, glaring at Sirius.

"What's not true?"

"That we have nothing in common....anyway what about you and Dominique? What do you guys have in common?"

"Well, we're both extremely attractive..."

"and extremely egotistical..." Lily commented.

"and quite snotty..." James added.

"Hey!" Dominique and Sirius protested in unison.

"And they both seem oblivious to it all..." Peter added.

"Well, as our dear friends have pointed out Moony ol boy, Dominique and I are clearly made for each other. That's why we're getting married this Saturday, after all..." Sirius said. "Now as for you two...well...I don't know what you share..."

"besides spit..." James added.

"Oh very funny..." Kierra said as she smiled sarcastically at her friends and sat down to join them.

"Oh we're only teasing," Lily said as she pat Kierra on the back. "Hey, D and I were talking earlier while you were gone...please make sure you get to the wedding a little early, ok?"

"Of course I'll remember!" Kierra retorted, "You think I'll forget?"

"Yea..."

Kierra frowned. "I won't. Don't worry..."

"Can't believe our Padfoot's all grown up..." James said, turning to Remus and Peter. "I just hope your guests can find their way to the wedding...you picked such a remote place. If you wanted to have it outdoors, why couldn't you just have it at a park?"

"Ask Dominique..." Sirius replied, rolling his eyes.

"Parks are too public...I wanted it to be a private affair.." Dominique replied.

"So you have your wedding in the middle of nowhere?" James asked amusedly.

"It's not in the middle of nowhere! It's the perfect place...nice open country...lovely lake nearby..."

"Maybe you should have the wedding at Hogwarts..." Lily said with laugh.

"And the giant squid and all the merpeople could come.." Kierra giggled.

"Oh shut up you two..." Dominique snapped.

"Ooh...someone's touchy today..." Lily replied.

"Pass the linguine..." Dominique said tersely to Remus.

"prewedding stress..." Kierra commented. "My sister-in-law was an absolute bitch the week before her wedding...er"--Kierra smiled at Dominique as the latter glared at her--"not you of course...you're an absolute doll..."

Dominique only rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Remus. "So, do you think your dad will make it, Remus?"

Remus frowned slightly as he continued to eat without so much as looking at Dominique.

"Yes, he'll be coming...but he can't stay long. We made an appointment for him at St. Mungo's...so we'll be taking him shortly after the reception."

"Any ideas as to what he might have?" Kierra asked.

Remus shrugged. "No idea....it just started off with a lot of coughing, and now it's taken a turn for the worse...he's been feeling feverish and seems to be having some memory loss..."

"Memory loss?" Peter asked.

Remus nodded. "Though he won't admit it...it certainly seems as though he's suffering from it...the other day he got all mixed up in his study and couldn't remember where he put half his things...and usually he's very sharp about remembering everything..so...oh"--

Remus pointed towards the window, indicating at a tawny owl that pecking gently at the glass.

Sirius quickly got up and opened the window for the owl. Just as it flew in, the owl immediately fell onto the coffee table with its wings spread out.

"Aww...poor guy...must've flown a long distance..." Lily said as she got up and went to the sink to get the owl some water. She reached into the cupboard and picked out a small bowl and filled it to the rim. Careful not to spill, she walked across the room and placed it on the coffee table and began to gently coax the bird into getting up. "Who's the letter for?" she asked as Sirius had just taken the letter out of the owl's mouth.

"Kierra..." he said, holding it out to her.

"Me? Who's it from?" Kierra asked as she too got up and went over to Sirius.

"Doesn't say..."

Kierra took the envelope from Sirius and ripped it open.

"Well, what's it say?" James asked after several moments' silence.

Kierra was grinning from ear to ear when she began to read her letter aloud:

Dear Ms. Nakofsky,

After reviewing your application and credentials for the position of researching curator at SIMA, we are pleased to inform you that that there is an opening at our institute that we hope you will accept.

"What's a sima??" James asked.

Kierra ignored him and continued:

SIMA is a venerated institute ranked among the top research institutions in the magical world. SIMA fosters the intellectual and character development of over 4,000 young wizards and witches in Salem. Founded in 1834, it is the oldest wizarding research institute in the United States and the fourth largest in the world. Through teaching, research, and community service, the Salem Institute of Magical Arts is the place where knowledge touches lives. (a/n: I sorta stole and revamped this paragraph from the mission statement of SLU, where I used to go..lol u can see the original at if ur curious..)

As head researching curator, some of your amenities will include free on-site housing, which will feature a state-of-the-art fireplace, perfect for flooing, as well as an express owl, in order to ensure smooth, quick and easy communication for all your professional needs.

Some of your responsibilities will include administering the affairs of our museum, as well as our historic sites around the country. As the head curator you will direct the acquisition, storage, and exhibition of collections, including negotiating and authorizing the purchase, sale, exchange, or loan of collections. You are also responsible for authenticating, evaluating, and categorizing the specimens in a collection. You will oversee and help conduct the institution's research projects and related educational programs. However, an increasing part of a curator's duties involves fundraising and promotion, which may include the writing and reviewing of grant proposals to and from the American Ministry of Magic, journal articles, and publicity materials, as well as attendance at meetings, conventions, and civic events.

Most curators specialize in a particular field, such as herbology, magical creatures, ancient runes, or magical history, and so should you accept this position, within a few months you will need to pick your specialization. Soon after this takes place, you will begin training in wizarding education so you can be qualified to teach should you choose that path later on in your career.

Enclosed, please find the acceptance/rejection form, which we request you to return ASAP via owl. On behalf of SIMAS, we hope to see you soon!

Sincerely,

Vincent Emerson

SIMA Director of Affairs

"I got it!" Kierra said excitedly, "I got the job!!"

Dominique and Lily jumped on her at once.

"Way to go Kierra!!" Dominique squealed as she hugged her.

"Can you believe it?? Salem??" Kierra asked. " I mean, I know it's nothing to what they have here in Britain...but they're the best in the States..."

"And look at all the stuff they're giving you!" exclaimed James as he grabbed the letter and reread it. "You won't have to worry about rent! I don't get it...why would they want you?? Ow!" James rubbed his arm where Lily pinched him.

"They wanted her because she got excellent grades"--Lily replied.

"And because I went to Hogwarts...I heard the wizarding schools in the states aren't nearly as good as the European ones..and Hogwarts is like one of the best..." Kierra added with a grin. She looked around happily at all of her friends as they congratulated her...Well, all but one. Remus still sat in his seat at the table, staring disbelievingly at her. After a few moments, his silence became unbearable.

"Remus, er...aren't you happy for me?" Kierra asked with a frown.

"Huh? Oh...yea...of course I am..." he said, though not sounding too happy. "congratulations..."

"Thanks..." Kierra said warily, absolutely certain he didn't mean it. She continued to look at him. "You're not happy for me..." she finally said.

Remus looked at her and sighed, shaking his head. "How can I be? You're going to move now..."

a/n: tear oh nooooo....what have I done???? sorryyyy...its not my fault...well, ok it is..but i had to...im trying to keep this damn thing in sync w/ long lost love...sigh...n/m...that only reminds me of the dilemna of ending this story...i'll explain that in another a/n later..lol newhos click below and leave one!!


	32. Chapter 33: Runaway

a/n: alrighty, another chapter goes up...I'm thinking I'll have the next one up in a few days (This chapter was supposed to be much, much longer, but I cut it short and transferred it to the next one) so check back soon! :)

Chapter 33: Runaway

Remus shut his eyes tightly and held his breath as he felt his head spinning against the whirling ashes. When the spinning stopped, Remus opened his eyes and looked up.

"Kierra!" He exclaimed as he noticed a pair of legs standing in what appeared to be a kitchen.

The pair of legs quickly drew nearer to the fireplace. Finally, Kierra knelt down so she was eye to eye with Remus.

"Hey!" she replied with a note of anxiousness in her voice. "What's up?"

"We need to talk...can I come over?" Remus replied urgently.

"Er...now?"

"yea"

"But the wedding's in a few hours! I have to go get ready soon"—

"Please, it's important..."

Kierra sighed. "ok, come on over..."

Remus quickly backed his head out of the fireplace, and stood up. Closing his eyes to concentrate, he disapparated out of his living room.

"That was quick..." Kierra said with a slight grin as Remus apparated in front of her moments later. "So...sit down...anything in particular you want to talk about?" she asked as she led him to the couch.

"Kierra, you know very well what I want to talk about." Remus replied, looking closely at her, who in turn was avoiding his eyes.

"Alright...let's talk..." she replied quietly.

"So..." Remus began uneasily, "have you made your final decision?"

Kierra nodded.

"And?"

"I sent my acceptance letter to them last night..."

"What??" Remus exclaimed indignantly, as she had expected. "Without talking to me

about it first??"

Kierra finally met his eyes. "Remus, this is my life"—

"I know it's your life...but aren't I a part of it? Don't I have some say??" Remus asked at once.

"Of course you're a part of my life...a huge part at that...but Remus, don't you understand? This is a great opportunity for me...all the other places I've applied to haven't even responded to me...and now I've got this fantastic offer that I'll probably never come across again...I can't just pass it up...just like that..." Kierra looked at him apologetically. She really did feel bad for saying all that...but it was true...and she had to think about herself...it was in her best interest to take the job...

"I understand that it's a great opportunity and all...but didn't you think about the sacrifices you're going to be making? You're not just leaving me...you're leaving your family, and your friends...your whole world! You've lived in London your whole life...who knows how you'll find the American environment"—

"I'll never know until I go there"—

"But you don't have to"—

"Remus," Kierra cut in; she put her hand on his knee and looked him in the eyes—"I've

given it a lot of thought. I understand the sacrifices I'm making...but it's really not that bad"—

"Not that bad?? Kierra are you joking"—

"We can keep seeing each other! It wouldn't be that hard! We could take turns

visiting..."

"Kierra, it's not as easy, traveling between continents. Apparating, flying and flooing...they all become a lot harder when covering such a long distance...it wouldn't be like we could visit each other all the time...you'll be busy with work"—

"Then you can come visit me! You can come whenever you want...and you could stay with me for a few weeks at a time maybe"—

"Kierra, you know I can't do that..."

"Why not?"

Remus sighed. "I'm still looking for work, you know"—

"Wait!" Kierra exclaimed suddenly. "Why don't you just come with me to the States? You could look for work there! It would be great"—Kierra stopped when Remus shook his head sadly.

"Kierra, I could never leave home...not while my dad is ill...I need to take care of him...my mum's always gone to work now since she's filling in for dad at the office..."

Kierra nodded. "So...what are you saying then?" she asked slowly.

Remus shrugged. "I don't know...I don't want to call it quits..."

"Neither do I..."

"But how are we going to make it work? It'll be so difficult if we're hardly going to see each other...I mean...we could try..."

Kierra nodded, suddenly remembering something from a few days back...Should they try?

* * *

"What are you thinking about?" Remus asked as he watched Kierra's eyes, which seemed to have grown distant in the last few seconds.

"Oh"—Kierra snapped out of her minor trance—should she say what she was thinking? It was best to be honest, she reasoned... "well...I was thinking...is it worth it?"

Remus looked at her curiously. "Er...what's worth it?"

"Trying to...make things work..." she said slowly, hoping her honesty wouldn't offend him, "I was wondering...if taking the trouble to make things work would be worth it..."

"Why wouldn't it be?" Remus asked, staring at Kierra suspiciously.

"Well..." she started slowly, staring back at Remus a bit anxiously, "what I mean is...what if we went through all this trouble to make things work between us...but then we break up? I mean...what's the likelihood of us doing that? The chances would certainly increase with me moving, wouldn't it?"

Remus shook his head, seeming to be a bit confused. "I don't get it...where is all this coming from? Are you suddenly having doubts about the strength of our relationship?"

"I was just remembering what everyone was saying, the other day at Sirius's flat...how we have nothing in common"—

"Kierra, that's rubbish! Of course we have stuff in common..."

"Like what?" Kierra asked.

Remus paused to think, racking his brains for some argument...

"See! Nothing..." Kierra said after a moment's silence, "We don't have anything in common...I'm so ditzy at times I wonder why I'm not a squib...I'm loud and obnoxious and I wear my heart on my sleeve...and I'm so immature...and you're just the opposite!

You're this brilliant wizard, you're so much more mature than everyone...and you're good at everything"—

"I was horrible at potions...hey you were too! See? We have something in common!" Remus said with a grin.

Kierra sighed exasperatedly. "Remus, how are we going to base a romance on a shared hatred for potions? Don't you see? It's just...lust...I've suddenly realized it...it's lust... that's why we've lasted this whole time...but sooner or later that'll run out and whenever that happens we'll suddenly be all conscious of how dissimilar we are..."

Remus stared at her incredulously. He couldn't believe what he was hearing...

"Kierra...this is ludicrous..." he said as he shook his head. "You really think that? It doesn't make any sense..."

"It makes perfect sense..."   
"It kind of does...but it can't...it's just...stupid..."

"Look...I just thought we should consider the long run...and we want different things..."

"You still hate kids then?" Remus asked.

Kierra nodded. "See? I hope to God I never conceive a child, and I know you want half a dozen little Lupins running around your house..."

Remus frowned. "Not half a dozen"—

"Oh for goodness sake Remus, you know what I mean!" Kierra said irritably. "You know I hate kids and am not willing to have even one!"

"Well why can't you compromise? Having kids isn't that bad, you know!" Remus replied just as irritably.

"Look, if you like kids, that's fine, but don't try to push it on me, ok?" Kierra snapped.

"Anyway, why do I have to compromise, why can't you?"

"Because"—Remus paused momentarily to think of an argument—"because when you get all old and wrinkly you'll probably regret that you never had kids..."

"And you're so sure you won't ever regret having kids?" Kierra asked.

"No one ever regrets having kids....but people do regret not having them..." Remus replied.

"Well, that's not the case for everyone...it certainly doesn't apply to me"—

"You don't know that"—

"Well you don't know either! Look can we drop this whole child issue??" Kierra exclaimed.

"Fine" Remus replied.

Several moments passed by where neither spoke. Finally, Kierra let out a deep sigh and looked squarely at Remus.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about here, Remus..." she said, "we have nothing in common...our friends are right...we don't talk to each other"—

"We're talking right now"—

"Yes, but whenever we sit down and talk...I mean really talk...we always argue! We can't live like this, Remus!"

"We don't fight that much..."

"That's because we're usually busy doing other things that requires very little talking..."

"You know, I'm starting to get the impression that you just want to break up...you're just bringing up excuse after excuse as to why we can't last together...if you want to break up, just say so!" Remus said angrily as he got up quickly from the couch.

"Fine!"—Kierra stood up as well and glared at Remus—"fine...I want to break up with you!"

"Fine, we're broken!" Remus retorted. "Happy?"

Kierra folded her arms across her chest as she continued to glare at him. "Yes" she replied contemptuously. "I am."

Remus shook his head and rolled his eyes irritably.

"What?" Kierra asked.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Kierra scoffed, "Please...I know you better than that..."

"Really? How? Between all the snogging and fighting, how on earth did you ever sneak in time to get to know me?" Remus asked in a mock surprised voice.

"It's not hard" Kierra retorted, "You're pretty damn predictable..."

"Am I?"

"Oh yea...in fact, you were just thinking, quite condescendingly I might add, how childish I must be for acting the way I did and that I'm being a complete dolt about all this..."

"Touché, Kierra...touché...I guess I am a bit predictable" Remus said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Well, since I'm obviously a big dolt, and you're just so clever, I'm sure you can figure your way out of here on your own then?" Kierra asked.

As Remus opened his mouth to reply, a sudden a burst of fire came from the fireplace, causing himself and Kierra to jump slightly, as they faced Lily Evans.

* * *

"Lily!!" Kierra exclaimed.

"Kierra..." Lily said breathlessly. "Get ready and come to my house...now..."

"But"—

"Oh, Remus! Hey!" Lily said quickly as she noticed Remus kneeling down to see her.

"Lily, I don't need to come over for another hour!" Kierra said irritably as she also knelt by the fireplace. She looked more closely at Lily, and noticed her brow creased with preoccupation. "Is something wrong?" Kierra asked.

Lily nodded anxiously. "Dominique's gone..."

"What??" Remus and Kierra exclaimed at once.

"What do you mean she's gone??" Kierra asked. "She's supposed to be at your

house...getting ready"—

"I know, I know!" Lily said hastily, "she was getting kind of antsy...prewedding jitters I suppose...and then when I was helping her get dressed, she said she had to use the loo, and when she didn't come out after like, ten minutes...I went to check on her...and she was gone!!"

"Out the window?" Kierra asked.

"There are no windows in that bathroom!" Lily said brusquely, "she disapparated!"

"Oh..." Kierra replied stupidly. She watched way too many muggle movies... "Well, ok, I'll be right over then...just give me a few minutes to get dressed!" she shouted as she ran out to her room to get ready, leaving Lily and Remus alone.

"Listen, Remus," Lily said, "could you go over to Sirius's and hang out with him? Try to stall him a little? Just don't tell him anything, please...I'm sure we'll find Dominique, or she'll turn up or something...we just don't want to worry him..."

Remus nodded. "Sure thing..."

Lily smiled slightly. "Thanks. I need to contact Alice now...and I'll get in touch with you whenever we find her..." she said and without further adieu her head disappeared from the fireplace.

* * *

"Oh! She's gone..." Kierra said as she came into the living room, only to see Remus, facing an empty fireplace.

"Oh...yea...she had to go tell Alice..." Remus said tersely.

"Oh...right..."

Remus finally turned around to look at Kierra. Her hair was out of its normal pony tail, and tousled all about, falling messily over her shoulders. She wore a long, pink dress of taffeta that poofed out from the waist-down, and tightly hugged her outline from the waist up.

"Well..." he said, finally managing to pull his eyes away from her corseted torso, "I have to go...Lily told me to see Sirius..."

Kierra nodded. "Right..."

"Well...I'll show myself out." And with that, Remus headed towards the door—

"Wait!"

Remus turned around and looked at Kierra with surprise.

Kierra sighed. "Don't tell the others...today is for Dominique and Sirius...we're not ruining it for anyone."

Remus nodded. "We'll tell them later."

"You will."

"Me?"

"Yea"

"And you?"

"I'm moving tomorrow, I'll have just enough time for some goodbyes." Kierra replied.

"Right." Remus replied. "Well, have a safe trip then..." and without turning back to so much as look at Kierra, Remus disapparated out of her house.

Kierra sighed as she grabbed her pink high heels. The day had hardly even begun and it seemed to be horrible already. Her relationship with Remus had ended on a sour note; of all days to choose, it had to be on her friend's wedding, and what was worst—the bride was missing. Kierra glanced briefly at the spot where Remus stood moments before he disapparated and sighed again before she too disapparated out of her house.

* * *

"Ok..." Lily said as she paced around the living room of her house, "here's what we're going to do. We're going to split up and search the city"—

"Lily, have you any idea how big London is??" Kierra asked incredulously.

"Yes, I'm quite aware," Lily snapped, "but Dominique doesn't know London well. She's hardly seen any of it. She'd only go to the places she's familiar with...and that would be"—

"The mall!!" Kierra and Alice said together excitedly.

Lily sighed. "Yes, the mall...that's definitely a possibility, so I'll be checking it out"—

"We'll come too!" Alice said.

"No way," Lily replied, "even in the direst of situations, I would never trust either of you to help me find something in the mall. No, I'll go by myself. Alice, I want you to check out the park down the street. Kierra, I want you to check out every tea and coffee shop within a two mile radius...we're bound to find her in one of these places...."

* * *

Two hours later, Lily, Kierra, and Alice sat despairingly on the couch back in Lily's home.

"The wedding's in half an hour...what the hell are we going to do?" Kierra asked.

"Maybe she went back to Paris..." Alice suggested.

Lily shook her head. "She couldn't have disapparated from the bathroom and gone to

Paris...it's just too long a distance...she can't have had enough apparation experience to pull that off."

"Well, you never know, she's a pretty good witch..."

"But why would she go back to Paris?" Kierra asked. "I know she misses things about it...but I would've thought that she'd be scared to go back there...she has bad memories of that place..."

"true..." Alice said as she nodded in agreement.

"Maybe we should just break the news to Sirius..." Kierra said finally. "The guests are probably starting to arrive..."

"No!" Lily said with sudden determination, "Come on guys...we need to find her...she's bound to be somewhere!!"

"But we've looked everywhere you thought she'd be!" Alice said.

"But she can't have just...disappeared..." Lily sighed, frustrated, trying to rack her brains for any other potential hiding spots for Dominique....

"We need to think like Dominique!" Kierra said suddenly. Lily and Alice turned to look at her curiously. "I mean she probably has seen other parts of London with Sirius...or Remus..." she added hesitantly. "We need to think like her. Put ourselves in her shoes...So, she's getting married today and she freaked out and left...If you were Dominique, where would you go?"

Alice and Lily glanced at each other and sighed.

"The mall..."

Kierra rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Ok lets rephrase this...er...alright...If you were Dominique...where would you go...if...if you were scared of facing something?"

"Some sort of sanctuary..." Lily murmured.

"Or a person she can confide in..." Kierra added.

"Of course!" Alice said, "Remus! She always goes to him"—

"No!" Kierra said all too abruptly. "I mean...no...she couldn't have..." she said cautiously as Alice and Lily eyed her curiously.

"Why not? It makes perfect sense!" Alice said.

"Well..."

"Of course"—Lily muttered—"Remus was at Kierra's house when I told her about Dominique...she couldn't have seen him..."

"Exactly my point..." Kierra said quickly with a nod.

"But maybe she went to his house, thinking he would be home..." Alice persisted.

Lily frowned. "That's quite possible...but then I told Remus to go directly to Sirius's place to distract him a little...Kierra, did he go to Sirius's flat after I left? Or did he say he was going anywhere else?"

"Er...yea he was going's to Sirius's I guess..." Kierra replied.

"You guess?" Alice looked at her appraisingly.

"Well...I had gone up to change when Lily gave Remus the orders...and when I came back...he just said he was going to Sirius's flat...and he left...so I'm assuming he went there directly..."

"Maybe she went to his house, thinking he'd be there...maybe we can check it out"—

"Come on, Alice...no one's home. Remus is at Sirius's...Mr. and Mrs. Lupin have probably left for the wedding by now...no one to let her in..." Kierra said in one breath.

Alice looked warily at Kierra. "Why are you acting so weird?"

But before Kierra could even begin to think of a reply, Lily gasped. Startled, Kierra and Alice jumped slightly.

"Dumbledore!" Lily exclaimed. "She went to Dumbledore!"

"Great..." Kierra muttered. "How are we supposed to find Dumbledore? He's probably unplotable or something...and he doesn't exactly hang out in local tea shops around here, does he?"

"On the contrary, Miss Nakofsky..." came a voice from behind them.

* * *

"Alright...how do I look Moony?" Sirius asked as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

"Like a thousand galleons..."

Sirius's jaw dropped as he turned to face his friend. "A thousand galleons? How dare you put a price on a body like this! And what's more...only a thousand...you wound me, Moony..." he muttered.

Remus chuckled. "You run the risk of wounding yourself with such an inflated head...it might just explode one day..."

"And then poor Dominique would have to clean the pieces..." James said with a wry grin as he came out of the bathroom. "Looking good Padfoot! I daresay you clean up remarkably well..." he said as he came face to face with his best friend.

Sirius grinned and turned to Remus. "See, that's how you compliment a person's looks..."

"Yea really, Moony...I heard the thousand galleon bit..." James said, "though you may be on to something with his head exploding..."

Remus rolled his eyes. "A thousand galleons...it's just an expression!"

"Let's hope you've never used it on Kierra..." James replied with a laugh. "Oh, then again, maybe you should...I love watching her get mad..."

"I thought you loved watching Lily get mad..." Sirius said as he walked over to the closet and knelt down to get his shoes.

"Yea, her too...well...not angry mad...just annoyed. I don't like seeing her angry..."

"Afraid she'll get her wand out?" Remus asked with a slight smile. Lily was the best in their year at charms, and she owned a wand that seemed so compatible with her it was almost unnatural.

James nodded and smiled sheepishly.

"Alright I think we're ready to go, boys...I'll bet Wormtail's already there and waiting for us, the poor punctual bastard..."

"Er, no...we can't go..." Remus said suddenly, as he glanced shortly at the clock.

"Because...?"

"Well..." Remus began nervously, "because...because you have a stain on your jacket!"

"Where?" Sirius asked, glancing down at his tuxedo.

"On the back...right...here..." Remus said as he gently pressed his fingers on Sirius's back, hoping he wouldn't feel the thin jet of orange light that came out of his hand and penetrated Sirius's jacket. Remus frowned. He needed to work on his wandless magic. There on Sirius's jacket, he had managed to put a meager looking stain.

"That's not too bad..." Sirius muttered as he pulled his jacket off to examine the stain. "Well, no matter...I can see Dominique flipping out if she saw it...what with how touchy she's been lately...better get my wand..."

As Sirius turned around and flung his jacket on the couch, Remus quickly scanned the room. He immediately spotted Sirius's wand resting on the kitchen table. Remus quickly pulled out his own wand and whispered "accio..."

The wand fell into his hands, and Sirius turned around just as Remus pulled his hands behind his back.

"Hmm...I could've sworn I left my wand on the table..." Sirius muttered. He turned back around and headed to his room. "Maybe I left it in there..."

Remus sighed with relief as he tucked both wands away inside his jacket.

"What the hell are you playing at??"

* * *

Remus turned around, only to be facing James, who was staring at him with suspiciousness that was mingled with anger.

"Prongs! I...I can explain"—

"You had better"—

"I'm trying to distract Sirius, that's all...he can't go to the wedding...not now..."

"Why not?"

"Well"—

"Hey have you guys seen my wand? I can't find it anywhere!" Sirius exclaimed as he came out of his bedroom.

"Nope..." Remus said at once. He watched nervously as Sirius scratched his head while studying his surroundings.

"Maybe it fell somewhere..." he muttered as he got on all fours and began checking under all the furniture in the living room.

James looked at Remus anxiously. 'Well??' he mouthed to him, pointing at Remus's jacket, where he hid Sirius's wand.

Remus motioned for James to come closer. He leaned forward, and as quietly as he could, he whispered to James, "Dominique ran away ..."

"She what??"—Remus clamped a hand over James's mouth and glanced at Sirius, who was already standing up and looking at his friends curiously.

"Er...what are you guys doing??"

"Well, we were—eww!!" Remus pulled his hand away from James's mouth.

"Disgusting!!" he said with a shutter as he ran to the kitchen sink and began to wash his hand.

"What just happened here?" Sirius asked.

"Prongs licked my hand!!" Remus exclaimed.

Sirius looked at James and raised an eyebrow. "There's some leftover chicken in the fridge if you're hungry..." he said warily.

James shrugged. "Moony tastes good..."

"Is there something you two need to tell me? I saw you guys"—

"Oh, that!" James said with a laugh. "see...um...Remus here...he...um...he had told me that uh...the ear....it's uh...it's a sensitive spot"—James glanced back at Remus apologetically, who looked absolutely appalled—"and so...I didn't believe him...and told him to prove it..."

"And so he proved it?" Sirius asked.

"Er yea..." James replied, tugging uncomfortably at his collar as he did so.

"And he clamped a hand over your mouth because why?" Sirius continued.

"Well...Remus...you wouldn't believe it"—James chuckled nervously as he patted Remus on the back—"he's quite talented, you know...we don't give him enough credit...he put his mouth on my ear and...wow...had trouble containing my excitement..."

Remus and Sirius stared at James with revulsion.

"I thought Moony was just telling you a secret, and he covered your mouth to keep you from blurting anything out loud..." Sirius commented.

"Oh...yea..." James muttered, "that probably would've made more sense..."

"You think??" Remus asked sarcastically.

Sirius frowned at Remus, and then at James. "Fess up..."

"Why Padfoot, my dear...I have no idea what you're talking about"—

"Prongs, you're more than welcome to act like a poof with Moony, but don't do that with me"—

"Don't do that with me either!" Remus chimed in. "Really Prongs, even joking like that...that's just not right...it's indecent..."

"What if I wasn't joking?" James asked innocently as he linked his arm with Remus's.

"I'll tell Lily you were hitting on me..."

"Ok, enough nonsense" Sirius interjected with a tone of annoyance in his voice. "You two are acting a bit odd...I mean, odder than the code of marauding usually allows...and what's more, my wand is missing..."

"Well...while we're waiting..." James said as he walked over to the fridge and helped himself to leftover chicken.. "Want some Moony?" he asked as he took a seat next to Remus at the kitchen table. "It's definitely more flavorful than your hand..."

"Er...it's cold..."

"So?"

"That's gross..."

"I like it cold..."

"And I think that's at least a couple of weeks old...Prongs, throw it away, you're going to get sick!"

"Don't talk about the chicken that way...it sacrificed its life for our culinary pleasure...the least you can do is make sure it doesn't go to waste...I mean, otherwise it would've died in vain..."

"How can you talk about the chicken's death while you eat it? That's just sick, Prongs....very sick..."

"Will you two shut up?" Sirius snapped irritably as he opened the oven door and checked inside. "Make yourselves useful and help me find my wand! Damnit, the wedding's in fifteen minutes!! D's gonna kill me!! Ok forget it, let's just go"—

"No!" Remus and James exclaimed in unison.

"Your stain"—James started—"she'll never forgive you for that stain!"

"And she'll refuse to marry me if I stand her up at our own wedding"—

"Sirius, calm down"—Remus cut in—"here, take a seat"—

"Take a seat? Are you guys on smack or something?? I'm getting married in fifteen minutes and you're telling me to"—Sirius stopped in mid-sentence—Remus was leaning back in his chair, the flaps of his open jacket hanging at his sides. In one of the inside pockets, he saw Remus's wand, tucked away with his own wand.

"Er"—

"You...traitor!!"

"Sirius"—Remus fell backwards in his chair as Sirius lunged at him.

"SABOTAGE!!"

"Padfoot!!!" James shouted as he struggled to hold Sirius back. "Don't be stupid"—

"TRYING TO KEEP ME FROM MY OWN WEDDING, IS THAT IT?? SO YOU CAN HAVE DOMINIQUE ALL FOR YOURSELF? I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS"—

"We ARE friends, you numbskull!!" Remus exclaimed as he pulled himself up and out of Sirius's reach. "I don't want Dominique for myself, but I AM trying to keep you from your own wedding!"

Sirius stopped struggling against James's grip. "What?"

Remus sighed and looked at James. "Might as well tell him now..." James nodded in agreement.

"Tell me what?" Sirius asked.

"Dominique's gone..."


	33. Chapter 34: Gone

a/n: aaah all my reviews got deleted from the last chapter, so make my day and leave some here :) am I sad that reviews make my day? lol ah well...newhos..I like the name of this chapter..gone...imagine the nsync song playing in the background..lol..

Chapter 34: Gone

"Gone??" Sirius asked incredulously. James and Remus nodded sadly. "Gone where? For how long??"

Remus only shrugged. "I don't know...Lily just told me...while I was at Kierra's...she told me she'd contact me if they found her...so I guess they haven't yet..."

"I'm going to look for her..." Sirius said urgently. "and I swear, if I find the person who's responsible for this"—

"Sirius..." Remus began, "No one took Dominique...she...she left on her own accord..."

"What??"

"She disapparated out of Lily's bathroom while she was getting ready..."

"How could she leave me like that??" Sirius muttered as James sat him down on the couch.

"Come on Padfoot, she probably just got all nervous and stuff...I don't think she left for good...don't worry about it..." James said.

"I don't get it," Sirius continued, "how could she be nervous? How could she have any doubts?? I've been treating her like a queen since the day I met her...doesn't that count for anything??"

"Course it does Sirius...she just freaked...it's normal for girls to do that...er...I think it is...isn't it?" James asked, turning to Remus.

"Sounds about right...girls are very sensitive...they get nervous and flip out very sporadically...usually at the worst possible times..."

"You see?"—

"They're very strange creature, females...they always want to communicate their worries to you, but they never know how...and they get scared when they see the slightest hint of difficulty in a relationship...they never want to compromise, no...the guy is supposed to make all the bloody sacrifices"—

"Remus"—

"...and they never know what they want...and when they do, they can never come out and tell you!"

"Remus!"

"What?"

"Did you have a row with Kierra or something?" James asked.

"Er"—

"That's not good, mate! She's leaving for the states tomorrow! You don't want her to leave all angry with you..."

"Wait...you already knew she was leaving??"

"Yea she told all of us yesterday"—James stopped short and frowned—"oh bloody hell, I'm not helping the situation out by telling you that, am I?"

Remus shook his head. "Don't worry about it, you needn't take any blame for this..."

"Argh...Lily's right, I've got such a big mouth and I need to learn to shut up sometimes..."

"And speaking of the devil of a girlfriend you've got..." came a voice from behind them.

* * *

The boys turned around, only to see Lily standing at the doorway with Alice. Before anyone could say anything, Sirius was hurtling over the couch and running towards the girls.

"Did you find her??" he breathed.

Lily raised an eyebrow in surprise and then turned to Remus and frowned. "You just can't keep a secret, can you??" she scolded.

"I didn't have a choice! James saw the wand and I had to tell him...and then Sirius saw us...and we weren't snogging..." Remus stammered.

Lily looked at him puzzlingly. "Er...ok"—

"Forget about James and Remus snogging! Where's D??" Sirus interjected.

"They made out??" Alice asked with sudden interest. "I'm telling Kierra!!"

"We weren't making out"—

"It just looked like it"—

"No it didn't, really Prongs"—

"anyway why would Kierra care? They got in a fight"—

"What do you mean they got in a fight?" Lily demanded. "Kierra never said anything to us..."

"Well, that explains why she was acting weird when we mentioned Remus..."

"She did?" Remus asked. The idea of Kierra being distressed at hearing his name brought unusual comfort to him...

"Ok, shut up all of you!! Can we please get back to the main issue at hand??" Sirius bellowed. "Where is Dominique?!"

"She's at Lily's." Alice replied. "She came back with Dumbledore..."

"Dumbledore?"

"Yea...she went to him...and Kierra's there, keeping an eye on her." Alice said. She then turned to Remus with a very concerned look on her face. "Ok...so what happened with you and Kierra??"

"Nevermind that," Remus replied irritably, "some of my best friends are getting married. Do you think we can go to the wedding now??"

"Yes! Thank you!!" Sirius exclaimed as he pat Remus on the back and headed out the door.

As Peter stood at the steps of the white, flower adorned gazebo, he looked onto the crowd of very bored guests. He looked at his watch. Where were his friends? They were all missing...they were all an hour late...

"Ok...um...let's uh...let's call it quits with the knock-knock jokes then..." Peter said over the magical microphone as he nervously watched the restless crowd.. "Er...ok! How about a little sing-along? I know you all like the Weird Sisters! Let's sing 'Don't Go Hexing My Heart'...how about it?"

"Good God Wormtail, the Weird Sisters are hardly appropriate for a wedding!!"

* * *

Peter's gaze shifted to the direction of the familiar voice. There was Sirius, James, Dumbledore ('Dumbledore?? Why's he with them??') and Remus. He sighed with relief as he hopped out of the gazebo and ran over to his friends.

"Where have you all been??" Peter exclaimed. "You're all over an hour late, and I had to entertain the guests with corny knock-knock jokes!"

"Well, I'm glad we came when we did..." Sirius replied. "the world is not ready to hear your singing voice..."

"Amen to that..." James chimed in as he pat Peter on the back. "Thanks though for stalling for us...Dominique ran off"—

"What??"

"No we got her back though, don't worry...the girls are with her..."

"Oh, ok..."

"Well, shall we proceed with the ceremony then?" Dumbledore asked.

Sirius nodded. "Yes, let's do it."

* * *

Dominique stood nervously at the make-shift alter, listening to Dumbledore's voice. It was so calm and soothing...so pacifying and serene. His words were probably as calm as his tone of voice, but Dominique wouldn't have known. The words didn't seem to register in her head. All she could do was watch Sirius anxiously.

He didn't look at her. He had been watching Dumbledore, clearly listening to his speech. Sirius knew she had run away. What did he think of her? Well...he couldn't hate her...he was allowing the ceremony to continue...but he was probably mad at her...or just annoyed...or maybe he was simply relieved that Dumbledore had convinced her to marry. Well, whatever his temper vouched for, she was certain of one thing. He would never wholly trust her. He certainly wasn't to blame.

'What was I thinking??' Dominique thought regretfully to herself, though she knew very well what the answer was. Fear was all she had felt when she disapparated out of Lily's bathroom. Dominique never sought anyone's advice on the subject of marriage, and so she suddenly began to feel doubtful of her own decision. What if they didn't live happily ever after? Even though Sirius was positively the best boyfriend she ever had, what if he changed? What if there were things she still didn't know about him? What if he was too good to be true?

"Dominique"—

Dominique, though she had been staring at Sirius during the entirety of Dumbledore's speech, looked at him now as if she were seeing him for the first time. 'Oh, the vows...' she thought.

"Dominique," he started again, looking at her very seriously, "From the moment you entered Hogwarts in our seventh year, I remember singling you out as the most beautiful, the most magnificent creature that ever graced the earth. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I was a victim of love at first sight. Maybe I didn't realize it then, but now I see it's been there the whole time. I fell in love with you...and your whole essence...and the aura around you. I honestly don't know what else to say...except that I hope you know how much I love you, and that I would die before I'd allow myself, or anyone else to hurt you."

Dominique felt Dumbledore's eyes falling on her, it was her turn to talk. She stared at Sirius, suddenly forgetting the little speech she had prepared. It suddenly seemed so irrelevant and inappropriate in light of Sirius's words.

"I"—Dominique's paused as she felt her voice crack—"I know you'd never hurt me!" she exclaimed as she began to cry. "I'm sorry...I love you....I always will"—Dominique felt herself leaning forwards, and next thing she knew, she was in Sirius's arms, still crying.

"That's a good enough vow for me..." Sirius said with a smile as he hugged Dominique. "So you'll be my wife in sickness and in health until death parts us?"

Dominique smiled through her tears and nodded. "Yes..."

Dumbledore smiled approvingly over the couple and nodded. "Well...I think it is now safe to pronounce you husband and wife! You may now"—Dumbledore glanced down at Sirius and Dominique and frowned—"er, continue kissing the bride.

* * *

"Mum, dad, come on already!!" James whined.

"Can we at least finish our cake?" Mrs. Potter asked with a note of exasperation in her voice.

"Take it with you, come on! They're only a few tables down!" James said, as he rocked back and forth on his heels quite anxiously.

"Honey, are you sure you never dropped him when he was little?" Mr. Potter asked his wife with a grin as he got up from the table. "he's such a strange child, that James..."

"Hey!!"

"He gets it from you..." Mrs. Potter replied with a laugh as she followed her husband and James towards another table that was closer to the gazebo.

"What's so strange about meeting the Evans?" James asked. "I've been wanting to meet them for ages."

"Yes, you would..." Mr. Potter replied. "But it's just not natural...boyfriends never want to meet the parents of their girlfriends...and then having the parents just meeting each other...what's wrong with you, boy?"

"Dad! Do you not want to meet them or something??" James asked incredulously.

"Of course I want to meet them!" Mr. Potter replied. "Your mother and I both want to...but we're just concerned about you...you're so eager for all of us to meet...that's just a bit abnormal for a young man your age..."

"Oh whatever on!" James said resignedly as he led his parents to the table where Lily Evans sat.

"James! Hey!" Lily said excitedly as she got up to greet him.

"Mum, dad, this is Lily Evans..." James said proudly, as if he were presenting his parents with an award.

"We figured..." Mr. Potter said. "Nice to finally meet you, my dear. James has been telling us all about you..."

"...for the past five years..." Mrs. Potter added.

"Mum!!"

"Oh as if she didn't already know..." Mrs. Potter laughed.

"It's nice to meet you." Lily replied, suddenly feeling quite shy.

"Aren't you going to introduce us dear?" came a voice from behind her.

"Oh!" Lily turned around, and smiling at her were her parents, who were just coming from congratulating Dominique and Sirius. "Mum, dad, er...this is James...and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Potter..."

"Wonderful to meet you at last!" Mr. Evans said happily, extending his hand out to Mr. Potter. "Wonderful to meet more of you magical people! The only ones we know are Lily and a few of her friends..."

"And it's nice to finally meet you James..." Mrs. Evans said with a warm smile as she shook his hand. "You look exactly the way Lily described you to be!"

James's eyes brightened at hearing this. "Really? How'd she describe me?" he asked with sudden interest.

"Mum, think you can get me another slice of cake?" Lily asked. "You know, I'm too embarrassed to go and get another slice..."

"Oh nonsense dear, you weren't embarrassed to get those first three slices! Go on, I want to get to know your boyfriend!" Mrs. Evans said as she pushed her daughter away. "Now"--Mrs. Evans turned her attention back to James--"a few years ago, when she wasn't particularly fond of you, I believe she described you as a black haired boy with glasses. But recently, she got more descriptive..."

* * *

Remus watched from a distance as Sirius smeared icing along Dominique's cheek, who in turn only laughed and smeared some on Sirius's nose. Despite his depression and moodiness, Remus couldn't help but smile at his friends. They were definitely going to be happy together.

"Moony!!"

Remus smiled and walked towards them as Sirius waved to him.

"Think you could go without saying goodbye to us?" Sirius asked as he put an arm around his friend.

"Wouldn't dream of it..." Remus replied.

"So you guys are going straight to St. Mungo's from here?" Dominique asked.

Remus nodded. "They're going to run some tests on my dad...I think we're going to be there all night..."

"He'll be in our thoughts..." Dominique replied.

Remus smiled. "Thanks. Just uh...don't think of him too much...since you're going on your honeymoon and all...that would just be weird..."

"Ew, Remus..."

"Just kidding! Well, I need to get going...I'll see you in a few weeks, Mr. Black" Remus said as he shook Sirius's hand "and you, Mrs. Black..." he added with a grin.

* * *

"Crouch is such a jerk..." Kierra muttered as she walked along the dirt road that led away from the wedding.

"I'm sorry...." Lily said apologetically. "I really tried asking him...but he has his policies...at least a week's notice for any absences..."

"git..." James said absently.

"But hey, Peter can still help you move"--

"No, he couldn't get off work either..." Kierra said dully.

"Well what about Remus?" James asked. "I mean, his dad is supposed to be getting bed rest tomorrow, and his mum will be home to take care of him...so Remus should be free to help out..."

"No way am I asking him for help..." Kierra replied.

"But you can't move by yourself!" Lily said.

"I don't have that much stuff...it won't be hard..."

"Yes it will..."

"Well, it'll be even harder if Remus is helping..." Kierra said with a sigh. "it'll be all awkward...I'd rather not deal with it..."

"You know, I think you two are being really stupid about this...breaking up like that..." Lily commented.

"I'm moving to another continent!" Kierra exclaimed. "We had to break up sooner or later...better now in person than later on through floo or something..."

"Good point..." James said. "But still, you guys fought...that's not the best way to end things...you may never see each other again..."

"Look, can we just drop this please? I'll move by myself and that's that." Kierra said with finality. "I don't want to think about Remus right now...I'm leaving tomorrow and I want to say proper goodbyes to you now..."

"What's a proper goodbye?" James asked.

Kierra shrugged. "I dunno..."

"You'll come visit though, won't you?" Lily asked.

"I'll try to..."

"But not too often," Lily cut in, "Britain's not safe anymore...Voldemort is virtually unkown in the States...you'll be much safer there...away from him, and all of his death eaters..." she added, remembering Kierra's past encounters with Lucius Malfoy.

Kierra sniffed heavily and hugged Lily. "I'm going to miss you so much, Lily...always taking care of me..."

"Hey what are mums for?" Lily said, as she felt her eyes well up with tears.

"I don't know who's going to wake me up every morning for work now..."

Lily laughed through her tears. "I'll send you howlers..."

Kierra pulled herself away from Lily after a few moments and turned to James. "I'll miss you too..." she said as she hugged him, "and all your pranks..."

James laughed as he put his arms around Kierra. "No hard feelings then, eh?" he asked. "You know all those years I used to pull your hair, hide your stuff"--

"all the times you tortured me?" Kierra asked.

James grinned. "yea...I always meant it in good humor..."

Kierra smiled. "I know..."

James frowned slightly. "Come to think of it...I was a real ass to you..."

"But a lovable ass all the same..." Kierra laughed. As she pulled away from James she smiled sadly. "hey I need to get back home now so I can finish packing" she said, "leaving early in the morning..."

"Alright...well, keep in touch...send us lots of letters..." Lily said.

"You got it..." Kierra said. She smiled and waved one last time to her friends before she disapparated back to her house.

Lily sighed. "It's a shame, you know...with Kierra and Remus..." she said as they continued walking down the dirt path.

"I know..." James replied. "and speaking of the devil..." he nudged Lily and pointed to their right, where Remus was walking with his parents. "Oy!"

"Hey guys...leaving as well?" Remus asked as he joined his friends.

"Yea, Dominique and Sirius left for Cairo a little while ago...so we thought we'd take off..." Lily replied. She glanced at James casually, but did a double take when she saw the expression on his face. He wore the same look he usually had when he was planning something mischevious. 'Oh dear...' she thought.

"Hey listen, Moony..." James started, "We just saw Kierra off"--

"She already left?"

"Er...yea...I mean, she went home, to finish packing..." James said, noting the slight anxiousness in Remus's voice. "Anyway, she's moving tomorrow morning you know...and we all promised we'd help her move..."

"She won't want me there"--

"...but none of us can make it anymore...Crouch won't let us off from work...but since you're free..."

"I'm telling you, she won't want me there"--

"...she asked if you could come help her."

Remus looked at James increduously. "She did?" he asked, turning to Lily.

"Er..yea, she did..." Lily said quickly.

"Why didn't she ask me herself?" he asked.

"Erm...well...because she was kind of shy...you know, with what's happened and all..." Lily said, trying to keep a straight face as James looked on to her, smiling approvingly.

"Oh...ok." Remus replied. "Er...how is she moving?"

"Air Merlin I believe..." Lily replied.

"Air Merlin?" Remus asked. "Er...don't they come directly to your house to pick you up?"

"yea..." James replied.

"I'm not going to her house..."

"Why not?"

"It'll be weird...and besides, it'll be so awkward with her parents..."

"Moony, do you really think Kierra would need our help moving if her parents were around? They're still in Bulgaria with her brother Harvey! He's a bit sick...so they're going to stay there with him, and go straight to the States to visit Kierra when he's better..." James said.

"I see..."

"So it won't be too awkward..."

"Right...well, I should go catch up with my parents...I'll see you guys later..." Remus said, and with that he bid his friends goodbye and left.

* * *

As Lily sat in the back seat of her parents' sedan, she recounted the events of the day. Losing the bride, finding the bride, two friends breaking up, one of them moving to the states, and two friends getting married....definitely a long day. Lily sighed as she thought of the wedding. It was certainly beautiful and very enjoyable, once they had found Dominique, of course. Sirius and Dominique would be very happy together...they'd probably have a dozen kids...Lily smiled inwardly at the thought of miniature Siriuses and Dominiques running around... 'I wonder if the world is ready for that...' she thought.

"Lily dear," Mrs. Evans started, looking back at her daughter from the front seat, "James is an absolute sweetheart...you've landed yourself an exceptional boyfriend..."

Lily smiled. "thanks, mum..."

"...and we had such a nice chat! Such a friendly young man...and so much energy"--

"Hi, I'm Mark Evans, your husband!" Mr. Evans cut in, causing Mrs. Evans and Lily to laugh.

"Oh honey, you know what I mean!" Mrs Eans siad, "You liked him too, you know"

"I did.." Mr. Evans said, "he's a nice boy..."

"As I was saying," Mrs. Evans continued, "he's so energetic, so lively...and he has such a funny laugh"--

"Oh mum, you weren't telling him those corny jokes you told us yesterday, were you?" Lily asked.

Mrs. Evans laughed. "No of course not, I was telling him stories about you"-

"Mum!!"

"He thought they were all funny!"

"Which ones did you tell?"

"Oh- you remember that one time when you were about four, you used to hate wearing dresses...and you wanted to be a boy...and so you took your playdough and made yourself a little"-

"Mum!!"

* * *

Remus nervously stood at Kierra's doorstep. This all seemed so weird...He was so used to apparating or flooing over...but now it seemed inappropriate....

He yawned as he knocked on the door again. He hadn't slept all night, having stayed up with his parents in the hospital...And now he was facing a day of moving around Kierra's stuff, not to mention dealing her majesty's moodiness that she tended to have when she was upset with someone. And of course to top it all off, the full moon was in a few days, and Remus was feeling a bit peaky. Yes, this would be a very long day for him.

Remus's thoughts were interrupted when the door swung open.

"Remus! What are you doing here?" Kierra stood at the doorway, looking very sleepy. Her hair was a mess, and she was still in her nightgown....

"Er...what do you mean..." Remus stopped. James Potter. Bona fide Trickster. Sirius had dubbed him so in their fourth year. And now he had recruited Lily to help him with his dirty work..."I'm sorry...you never asked me to come here, did you?"

"If I did, don't you think I'd be less surprised?"

"Right..." Remus replied, making a mental note to smack James, and to ask Alice to smack Lily. "Well, I'll uh...go then. See you..." he said as he turned to leave.

"Wait..."

Remus turned back around and looked at Kierra questioningly.

"Why did you come here?" she asked.

"James said you wanted me to come and help you move since they couldn't make it...clearly he was just pulling my leg..."

"Oh..."

"Well, I'll just go"--

"Or you can come in..." Kierra interjected, opening the door a bit wider to allow him inside. She sounded more polite than friendly. "I'm going to make some coffee..."

"Oh, that's ok...I don't drink coffee..."

"I know. I was going to make it for on in..."

Resisting the temptation to disapparate on the spot, Remus followed Kierra inside. The living room was crowded with boxes and furniture from Kierra's room.

"We have some cereal in the pantry if you want some," Kierra said as she started working on her coffee, "it's that nasty wheaty stuff you like..."

"I'm not hungry, thanks." Remus replied.

Kierra turned around and raised an eyebrow at him. "You always eat breakfast."

"I know...I'm just not in the mood for anything right now..."

"Did you eat at home?"

"No..."

"Then why aren't you hungry?"

Remus sighed. "I just told you I'm not in the mood..."

"Well ok then...I was just inquiring...I wasn't aware that you started changing your habits..." Kierra replied.

Remus rolled his eyes. "I never changed my habits. I still eat breakfast. I still eat nasty wheaty cereal, just not today. Give me a break."

"Alright, I'm sorry, keep your pants on..." Kierra replied as she sat down to sip her coffee. "...totally forgot that you PMS around the full moon."

Trying his best to resist the temptation of telling her to sod off, Remus simply exhaled quietly. 'She's just testing me,' he told himself. 'She just wants me to explode at her...' He looked down at her, about to ask her when they were leaving, when he noticed Kierra grinning at him.

"And what are you looking so smug about?" he asked her.

Kierra laughed as she rested her empty mug on the table and stood up. "I guess I'm almost as predictable as you are..."

"Sorry?"

"You think I'm just testing you...seeing how far I can push you before you blow up and tell me to sod off or something..."

Remus stared at her blankly. How the hell did she do it?

"Well, you're absolutely right," Kierra said with a small smile, "making me almost as predictable as you."

"Almost?"

"Well, you could read my actions, I can read your mind. And mind you, I don't know squat about legilimency".

"Right." Remus said. "So, when are we leaving?"

Suddenly, a deafening screeching noise came from outside.

"Right now..." Kierra replied.

* * *

After about half an hour of loading, they were aboard Air Merlin and heading towards the states. Remus looked out window as they flew through the clouds. It was certainly different... He wondered if muggle planes felt the same. He glanced over at Kierra, who was looking at the latest issue of Witch Weekly. Well, perhaps this was golden opportunity for him to catch up on his sleep...

"Remus, are you asleep??"

Remus opened his eyes and frowned at Kierra. "I was happily drifting towards it..."

Kierra smiled wryly. "Well, we're arriving in a few minutes; no point in going to sleep now."

Remus sat up straight and looked at his watch. "But we've only been here twenty minutes....I thought we'd be flying at least a few more hours..."

"Those are muggle planes, silly..."

"Er, muggle planes take even longer...about a whole day or something to get to the states..."

"Oh well...wizarding planes can go much faster...and this is Air Merlin, one of the fastest magical jets ever...it goes like a thousand kilometers an hour or something..."

"You're exagerating..."

"I am not!" Kierra protested. "How else would we get to America in half an hour?"

Remus shrugged as he took a sip of pumpkin juice from the silver goblet the flight attendant had given him earlier.

"Ah, right...nothing witty to say, just take a little drink..."

"You should just become a seer, Kierra..." Remus said wearily as he put his goblet down and reclined back in his seat, "you obviously possess the inner eye..."

Kierra rolled her eyes and also sat back. Just then the flight attendant appeared, smiling broadly.

"I just wanted to let you two know that we'll be landing in the next minute..." the attendant said, who seemed to be talking to Remus, rather than Kierra.

"Er, ok...thank you ma'am." Remus said.

"Oh, please, call me Natalia..." the attendant said, still smiling broadly as she ran her fingers through her dark brown hair.

"Natalia...that's a pretty name..." Remus commented.

The attendant blushed. "Oh, thank you...here, let me take your goblet..." She leaned over to collect the silver goblet, but just as she picked it up, her hand slipped and the goblet, along with its remaining contents, spilled onto Remus's lap.

"Oh! I'm so sorry"--Natalia pulled a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and reached forward--

"You know, Remus is a big boy..." Kierra said sweetly as she snatched the handkerchief from Natalia and handed it to Remus. "He can wipe his crotch himself..."

"Thank you, Kierra..." Remus said curtly as he took the handkerchief.

Unabashed, the flight attendant continued, "you know, that'll probably leave a stain...if you want, I can get those cleaned for you...I've got the perfect cleansing potion in the back room"--

"Or..." Kierra interrupted, pulling out her wand, "we can just forego the displeasure of seeing Remus with his pants off...scourgify!" The pumpkin juice stain disappeared at the wave of Kierra's wand. "Well," she said as she tucked her wand away, "thank you anyway, Natalia. You can go back to the cockpit now."

Natalia gave a fake smile and turning on her heel, she left.

Just as Natalia shut the door of the cockpit behind her, Remus turned to Kierra. "What the hell is your problem??"

Kierra smiled and closed her eyes as she reclined against her seat. "I don't have one..."

Remus stared at her increduously. "You don't have one??"

"Look, if I didn't smack some sense into that tart, she would've been giving you a lap dance by now, and while you may like that, I frankly didn't want to see it..." Kierra said curtly.

Remus only glared at Kierra, whose eyes were still closed. 'Let it go...' he told himself.

* * *

Half an hour later, Remus and Kierra were at the new flat, unpacking boxes.

"Kierra...you were criticizing me for eating nasty, wheaty cereal, and here you have it packed up in this box..." Remus said as he helped unpack boxes for the kitchen.

"Oh yea, I brought that for you," Kierra replied as she unpacked a box of pots, pans and other cooking utensils. "No one in my family eats it...I think we only had that box because you liked it so much...anyway, take it back to England with you, alright?"

"Er...sure..." Remus replied, setting the box on the table. He glanced at Kierra and grinned as she studied the saucepan she pulled out of the box. "Since when did you learn how to cook?" he asked.

Kierra frowned at him. "Since always..."

"Really?"

"Yea..."

"How come you never cooked for me? I've made dinner for you dozens of times..."

"Well..."

"Kierra, You don't even know the difference between batter and butter..."

"Oh shut it Remus. Just because you're a Stefano Lockhart in the kitchen, that doesn't make me a kitchen dunce..."

"Oh yea? Then what kind of pot are you holding?" he asked.

"Er..." Kierra looked down at it. It was a large, heavy bowl...she remembered her mum using it once for cooking crab ragoon... "Well, it's uh...a frying pot..."

Remus smiled. "Then what's the difference between that and a frying pan?"

"Look, if I wanted to be interrogated about pots and pans, I'd be in culinary school!" Kierra retorted as she waved the pan threateningly at Remus.

Remus only laughed and backed away. "It's called a wok, by the way...it's used for deep frying..." he said as he grabbed another cardboard box labeled "books" and headed for Kierra's room.

"It's called a wok, by the way..." Kierra muttered in a mimicking voice as she unpacked a box of utensils.

"I heard that!" Remus called out from the bedroom.

As Kierra opened another cupoard to put her plates in, she came across the local phone book that her landlord must have left for her. Kierra pulled it out and began flipping through it randomly. It seemed to be divided into a section for muggle business with phone numbers, and a wizarding section with lists of fireplaces and addresses. 'Hmm....' Kierra flipped to the wizarding section, and began searching under the R's....

* * *

Remus couldn't help but smile when he opened Kierra's last "books" box. He picked up the book sitting on the top. "The Sorceror's Lover". The box was full of romance novels. 'If this is her idea of tasteful literature...'

"Remus"--

Remus dropped the book and looked up. Kierra was standing at the doorway. She looked down at the box he was unpacking and suddenly began to turn pink.

Seeing this, Remus couldn't help but grin. "I was just admiring your collection of books..."

"Oh shut up..." Kierra snapped, grabbing the box and shoving it into the closet.

"What did you come in here for?" he asked, feeling slightly sympathetic when he saw her go pink.

"I was going to tell you to stay for dinner...I'm cooking...."

"food?"

"No, I'm going to fry shoes Remus. Yes I'm going to cook food!" Kierra snapped.

Remus laughed. "What did I ever do to you to deserve such a punishment?"

Kierra scowled at him. "Ha ha, very funny. In case you've forgotten, you've never tried my cooking..."

"Yes I have..."

"When?"

"Remember when you tried making me toast that one time? And you burned it"—

"That doesn't count as cooking!

"Right...what are we having?"

"It'll be a surprise..."

"I was afraid of that..."

"Shut up and keep unpacking." Kierra replied. "And don't come in the kitchen until I say it's ok!"

"Right then..." Remus replied. "Can't wait..."

* * *

"Hi...do you guys deliver?" Kierra asked, struggling to balance herself as she leaned in her fireplace.

A young man in a white apron knelt down to face Kierra. "Why, you're British!"

"Er...yea, I am..." Kierra replied awkwardly, suddenly feeling very aware of her foreign sounding accent. "So do you guys deliver or what?"

"We sure do..." the man replied. "What can I get you?"

"Er...I dunno...what do you guys have?"

The man looked at her curiously. "Well..we have a really big menu...do you have anything specific in mind?"

"Well..." Kierra started, "I need dinner for two...a few courses...I don't know..."

The young man smiled. "Let me guess...you're one of those non-cooking types that's told your boyfriend you can cook, so you're trying to impress him?"

"Yea, that's about right. Only he's not my boyfriend...well he was, he's my ex...look nevermind that, can you just cook something nice and deliver it to 3782 Parasol Lane?"

"No problem...anything particular you like?"

"I thought we established that I can't cook...just a few courses..anything...just get it here in a couple of hours?"

"Alright...one dinner date delivery. Got it...we're really busy though so it might be three hours..."

"That's fine..."

"Alright, I'll see you in a bit then."

"Thanks!"

And with that, Kierra pulled herself out of her fireplace. She glanced towards her room and saw that the door was still shut. As quietly as she could, Kierra tiptoed back into the kitchen and pulled her pots and pans out.

"I thought I told you not to come out until I said so!"

Remus only rolled his eyes. "I could only stay holed up in there for so long, Kierra. I got it cleaned up and organized...I even categorized your clothes by season and color...I was that bored, ok?" Remus added quickly as Kierra raised an eyebrow at him. "I did every possible thing to pass time...I even paired all of your socks"-

"Remus, you're wonderful..."

"thanks...and I paired all your underwear with their respective matching bras"-

"oh Remus, you shouldn't have..." Kierra said dryly.

"But I did..." Remus replied. "and you know Kierra, I'm thoroughly hurt that I was seeing half those knickers for the first time..."

"So sorry to have deprived you...hey, what do you think you're doing??" Kierra demanded as Remus walked down the hallway in the direction of the kitchen.

"Trying to get to your bathroom...do you mind?"

"Oh, alright..."

"You're really going clandestine with this cooking thing, aren't you? Makes me wonder...my parents know I'm here, you know...if you poison me, they'll find out..."

"Just go take your piss, Remus.."

* * *

Kierra jumped as she heard a loud knock on the door. "Salieri's!" A man's voice called from behind the door. Looking back to make sure Remus hadn't come out of her room, she quickly went to the door and opened it.

"Hey, come on in..." Kierra said quietly. "How much do I owe you?" she asked the delivery man as she led him into the kitchen.

"Er..." the deliver man looked at her curiously for talking so softly. "50 galleons even..."

"50 galleons? This better be good food..." Kierra muttered.

"Oh it is..." the young man replied. He glanced around Kierra's flat, and noticing all the boxes he asked "So, did you just move here?"

"Yea..." Kierra replied as she searched her pockets. "damn, I think I left my money in my bag...er...ok, take the food and put them in those pots on the stove..."

"Er...why is there water boiling in all of them?"

"Well..."

"Ah, trying to make it look like you're cooking?" he asked with a grin.

Kierra smiled sheepishly. "Yea..."

"You know, I've delivered to a few ladies who are trying to impress their boyfriends, a lot of guys who try to impress their girlfriends, but never anyone who's trying to impress their ex..."

"Well he was making fun of me...and he's a fantastic cook and everything..." Kierra muttered as she began digging through her purse.

"Why is he here anyway?" he asked emptied the contents of one of his boxes into a frying pan. "Er, sorry...I don't mean to pry"--

"No it's ok...he's helping me move...all my other friends had work and couldn't take off to help me move..."

"Ah, the ex is a bum without a job..."

"No," Kierra said quickly, "I mean...he doesn't have a job, but he's not a bum, he's been looking for one..."

"Tough job market?"

"I guess you could call it that..."

"So why'd you two break up?"

"Are you usually this chatty with strangers?"

"Just the pretty girls with accents..."

Kierra blushed. But before she could reply, Kierra heard her bathroom door creak open. "Quick, hide the boxes.."

Quickly the young man stuffed the boxes of food in the nearest cupboard, and shut the door just as Remus appeared in the kitchen.

"Kierra, I was"-he stopped in midsentence when he saw a young man standing in the kitchen with Kierra. He looked slightly younger than themselves...he had short blond hair and pale blue eyes. "Er...hi..."

"Hi..." the young man replied.

"Er...this is Remus..." Kierra said quickly to the blond, and this is..."

"Todd..." the man replied with a smile. Turning to Kierra, he said "well, I should get going..." He headed towards the door. Just as he opened it though, he remembered. "Oh..the money.."

"Right. Oh, here..." Kierra said, handing him a bag of money. "50 even."

"What, no tip?" he asked with a smile.

"Oh, sorry...I totally forgot..gimme a second"-

"Or you can just give me your number..."

"...or you can just go soak your head..." Remus cut in.

"Remus!" Kierra snapped.

"What exactly are you here for anyway?" Remus inquired as Kierra dug through her purse for change.

"Just...services..." Kierra muttered as she handed Todd several extra galleons.

"Services?"

"Yes, services." Todd said with a wink. "And I will be more than happy to perform them again for you...Kierra, is it?"

Kierra nodded. "Alright, bye Todd..." As the door shut, Kierra turned on to Remus. "What the hell is your problem??"

Remus only smiled and plopped onto the couch. "I don't have a problem!" he said in a voice that sounded uncannily like Kierra's.

"You think you're so cute, don't you?" Kierra said.

"Well," he continued in a mimicking voice, "if I didn't smack some sense into that tart, you'd be giving him a lap dance by now! Oh wait...I guess you'd be the tart then--ow!" Remus laughed as he rubbed his arm where Kierra hit him.

"Go to my room and alphabetize my books" she ordered.

"but I'm tired"--

"Well I'm not done cooking!"

"What did that guy come over for?"

"Just a utility worker or something..had to check the fireplace.."

"But he looked like a preschooler, they wouldn't have some kid doing that work..."

"Apprentice I suppose...it's not rocket science you know, checking a fireplace.."

"Then why'd you need someone to do it for you? Surely you could've done it yourself"--

"Out!"

"Would you like them in order of author or title?"

"title..."

* * *

"Kierra...I hate admitting this...but...I'm impressed..." Remus said as they ate dinner later that evening. "You cook better than me...how come you never told me?"

Kierra shrugged. "I'm not that good..."

"Oh, you're being you pass the bruschetta?"

"Er...the bruschetta?"

"Yea...did you really make it from scratch?"

"Er...yes..." Kierra said slowly as she glanced around the table. Bruschetta...what the hell was a bruschetta? There were four dishes in front of them- bread, chicken, salad, and some kind of rice... 'ok one in four chances of getting it right...' Kierra picked up the plate of rice and passed it to Remus.

Remus in turn, looked at Kierra curiously for a moment, before taking the rice and thanking her.

"Well," he said as he finished his wine, "I think I should head out now. Your flat looks ready...unless you have any other things for me to alphabetize..."

"No, that's it. Thanks so much for helping me out though. I don't know what I was thinking when I told Lily and James I could move on my own..." she said.

"Don't worry about it." Remus replied. "Oh, by the way...that bruschetta was tasty...do you think"-

"Oh...secret recipe..."

"I understand...I was just hoping you could tell me the name of the restaurant...maybe I'll grab some more before I go..." Remus said with a grin.

"Sorry?"

"Bruschetta is bread, Kierra...not rice..." Remus said.

"Oh..." Kierra felt herself color pink, and ever redder when Remus laughed at her. "Oh shut it, Remus...if you hadn't been making fun of me..."

"I'm sorry..." he said through his laughter. "very ingenious though...but I suggest that next time you're trying to impress someone, you should learn the names of the dishes first..."

"I wasn't trying to impress you..."

"Oh, sorry...what was it you were trying to do then?"

"Just shut up, Remus.."

"Right then..." he replied, still smiling. "Anyway, I should go," he said, as he reached into his pockets, "here, let me pay for some of the dinner"-

"No way...it was my treat.."

"It was 50 galleons...that's too much..."

"No, don't worry about it..."

"Come on Kierra...girls aren't supposed to pay for dinner....let alone 50 galleons"-

"Remus, please, it's not like we were on a date or anything...and there's no need to persist"-Kierra added when she saw the look of protest on his face-"I don't know why you need to prove your competence as a boyfriend to me...I mean really, the whole macho act isn't very becoming of you..."

"Isn't becoming of me?" Remus asked. "So not only do you think I'm an incompetent boyfriend, but I'm a pansy or something as well??"

"What? No"—

"Then what the hell do you mean?? Proving my competence...I wasn't trying to prove anything"-

"Ok then! I'm sorry I said that!" Kierra retorted. "Geez, don't get your panties in a knot..."

"And what do you mean that being macho isn't becoming of me??"

Kierra rolled her eyes. "just look at yourself..."

"Look at myself?"

"Yes, look at yourself! Look at my flat! Macho men usually aren't skinny little toothpicks"-

"I'm not a toothpick"-

"Please, you have the body of a 15 year old girl"-

"Right...the 15 year old girl you've been stalking since your sixth year..."

"...and macho men do not lecture girls on the differences between frying pans and frying pots..." she continued, ignoring Remus's comment.

"Kierra, there's no such thing as a frying pot. I told you, it's called a wok..."

"See?? Macho men don't know what woks are!" Kierra exclaimed. "Nor do they organize their ex's closet by season and colors...oh, and nor do they tell their ex's potential boyfriends to go 'soak their heads'...honestly, what decade are you living in, Remus?"

"Potential boyfriends? Are you talking about Todd?"

"Well, who else did you say that to?"

"But he's like eight years old or something...they've got laws here against that sort of stuff..."

"Oh please, he was not eight...he looked at least sixteen.."

"Still, that's two years younger...he's a minor...and you're an adult...well, legally anyway..."

"And what is that supposed to mean??" Kierra asked.

"It means that the only thing that classifies you as an adult is your age..."

"You think I'm immature??"

"You said so yourself yesterday!"

"And you agree?"

"Do you see me arguing?"

Kierra narrowed her eyes and frowned at Remus. "You know, you should've stuck with Megan..."

"Sorry?"

"Megan! You know...Megan whats-her-name...the blonde bimbo you were dating before me...you should've stuck with her..."

"And this is coming from where?"

"When you were deciding between the two of us, and you called me immature...and later on you told me you didn't mean any of that stuff and you were sorry...I guess you didn't mean it then..."

"Oh come on, don't go using that against me"-

"You know what, that actually puts me in mind; you actually were a pretty incompetent boyfriend..."

"Really? How?" Remus asked.

"Well for one thing, I can't even trust your words. You act like you're all sincere, but obviously, you've proven to be otherwise..."

"You're fuming over that one little thing"-

"...and to think, I broke up with Kyle Watson, just for you. I would've broken up with anyone to go out with you...and in the end...well, you obviously proved to be a bit overrated..."

"Overrated?" Remus asked increduously. "How was I overrated?? Unless you thought I was some sort of god prior to going out with me, then you're mistaken. I don't see anything your previous boyfriends had that I didn't have..."

"Cocky, aren't we?"

"Not at all. I'm stating the facts."

"Well, you have your facts wrong," Kierra replied. "I've had much better."

"Really? Who?"

"Well, there was Kyle"-

"Who talked nonstop about Quidditch and bored you to death?"

"He was sweet!" Kierra retorted. "And then there was Jack Riley, and Fred Henesey, and William Taylor..."

"Wow, I completely forgot about what a slut you were..." Remus muttered.

"Excuse me??" Kierra exclaimed. "I can't believe you're calling me that...you, of all people...you know, I don't know why I ever liked you in the first place...you think you're so cool because you got good grades and have popular friends..."

"Please, I never thought I was cool..."

"Yea right...gosh...I don't know what I ever saw in you...you walk around like you've got a pixie up your butt or something...And you know what? Incompetent is a complete understatement to describe you. You're a spineless jellyfish...can't even stand your own ground...you know what? Jellyfish have more spine than you"—

"You know what," Remus interjected, "I think you've said enough...and if you want to think all of that about me, fine. But I don't think any guy you ever dated would have let you in their bed in the middle of the night, just to listen to you cry until you fell asleep. Nor would they have saved your butt from some bully when you just had a fight with them...and certainly none of them would have come all the way here just to help you move, when they haven't slept in 48 hours."

"Yes, they would've"-

"Not if you had just broken up with them..."

Kierra made no response to this. She simply watched Remus head towards the door. As he opened the door, he glanced over his shoulder.

"Have a nice life..." he muttered. And with that, he left, slamming the door behind him.

Kierra stared at the door, unblinking, for several seconds. That was it; he was gone...she would never see him again...

Just then the door swung open.

"Remus"—

He wasn't quite sure what he was doing. He wasn't sure why he had walked back into Kierra's flat, or why he was walking towards Kierra, or what in fact, he should say.

"I..." he looked at Kierra anxiously, who in turn looked at him with equal apprehension. "I...um...I forgot my cereal..." he murmured as he seized her by the waist, pulling her in for a kiss.

Kierra's mind raced as she felt his tongue sweep through her mouth. They just broke up yesterday...They said horrible things to each other today...why was she letting him to this? Better yet, why was she running her hands through his hair?

"I'm sorry..." Remus breathed as he pulled away from her. "I'm sorry...I should go"-- Remus stopped in midsentence as Kierra pressed her lips against his. What was he doing here? They were done now, he was supposed to leave...but he couldn't...her fingers clutched tightly to his shirt, pulling him closer to her...

"Kierra, I have to go..." Remus said once more, as he tried to regain control of himself-"I really should go"- Remus leaned his head forward and kissed her again.

Admitting defeat, he tightened his hold on Kierra's body, sliding his hand up her blouse, caressing her warm skin. As he felt Kierra's hips grinding against his, Remus slid his other hand down to her butt; and pulling her against himself, he picked her up. Eyes still closed and lips still locked, Remus slowly carried her to the living room sofa, and together they toppled onto the couch.

As Remus trailed kisses down Kierra's neck, he felt her legs part slightly underneath him, allowing legs to fall between hers. He had long since forgotten why he was in a flat in the U.S. in the first place. He had forgotten why they had broken up to begin with. All he knew was that they had broken up, and what they were doing now was wrong...but the gilty tug from his conscious soon disappeared as his hand slid up Kierra's thigh and underneath her skirt.

When Remus opened his eyes, the sun was shining brightly though the window. He glanced down at Kierra, whose head rested against his chest. What had they gotten themselves into? He should have woken up in his own bed in England, not on the carpet of Kierra's living room...Careful not to disturb Kierra, Remus slowly pulled himself away from her and sat up. How would Kierra feel when she woke up? 'Confused at the very least.' Remus thought, 'regretful, perhaps...angry at me, maybe, for not being in control...' Awkward. Awkwardness was definitely guaranteed from both of them when Kierra woke. After all, they had a bitter break up- and an even worse fight last night...and yet somehow common sense managed to escape both of them... But now they'd face the consequences. Kierra would wake up, and they would probably fight some more, over whose fault it was, probably. Perhaps it would be best, for both of them, if they didn't have to deal with it...

Kierra rolled underneath her covers, hugging her pillow. She loved this part of waking up...waking up, but not getting up...She stroked her pillow as she snuggled against it. Then it suddenly hit her. Kierra opened her eyes and glanced around herself. Her pillow, her comforter, her bed... Kierra blinked a few times as she recalled last night. She hadn't fallen asleep in her bed. Nor had she slept on a pillow or with a comforter. Kierra pulled her covers away, but a sudden rush of cold forced her to draw them up to her chest. She was still naked.

"Remus?" She called quietly. No answer. Kierra climbed out of bed, wrapping her blanket around herself. She stepped out of her room and went to the living room. The cushions, which usually rested against the couch, were in fact still on the couch...as was the quilt that she normally folded and left on it. Kierra distinctly remembered the cushions falling askew onto the floor when she and Remus rolled off the couch and onto the floor. She also remembered falling asleep underneath the quilt...

Kierra turned around and headed to the ktichen. There on the table was the box of wheat cereal she told Remus to take along with him. She picked it up and opened it, peering inside and taking a whiff of it. She immediately closed the flap with a shudder. She absolutely hated the smell of wheat cereal..it smelled so healthy...

Box still in hand, Kierra walked back into the living room and sat on the couch. So he was gone...it was probably best, Kierra reasoned. After all, it probably would've have been too awakrward to deal with each other...and Remus was probably feeling regretful, or angry at her for not controlling herself...Yes, it was best this way. He'd move on with his life in London, and she'd start a new one here...

Kierra rested her head agaisnt one of the cushions, and still holding onto the box of cereal, she cried silently.


	34. Chapter 35: Lunch With the Potters

Author's Note: soo, we're fast-forwarding a bit...two years to be exact. Now, I want to say a bit about Sirius, but first let's talk about Remus... I think I'm going to be making some changes to his character...want to make him more...canon, I guess...but not totally...i mean, it's a fan fic..u dont have to..lol neway I just got thinkin about him b/c I had this reader allege that remus is coming off as a kinky sex machine (lol thank you so much for that 12th moon...really! lol) so yea...lol neway, so now on to Sirius...Until now, I've been a bit dissatisfied with my portrayal of Sirius. I mean, I think I made him somewhat 3D, but I feel like I wasn't accurately portraying him...so I thought since this story is taking a turn in its settings/mood (this was actually where I originally wanted to end Last Mile, and start the third part...) now would be a good time to do it. And I've thought of the perfect little thing that would make his transition b/w characters seem realistic. So, as we progress through the next few chapters, I want to say only this to the Sirius lovers: Please don't hurt me!!

Happy reading :)

Chapter 35: Lunch with the Potters

Dominique lay wake in bed. It was 1:35 a.m. And he still wasn't home. She sat up in bed and made up her mind; she would kill Crouch after this baby was born. She rubbed her stomach, which had been steadily expanding for the past six months. It was as if Crouch was punishing her for getting pregnant and taking off from work. He was giving Sirius extra hours, extra raids, and extra night shifts...when she needed him more than ever.

Dominique sighed as she laid back down. Pregnancy did not seem to suit her. Sure, she was aware of the hardships she would face, but God, she had a low threshold for pain. But it would be worth it in the end. They'd have their own baby. They had been trying for over a year. Even the Potters and the Longbottoms had beat them to it and had babies of their own. Well, in a few months, they'd have one too...

Suddenly, Dominique heard a cracking noise coming from downstairs. He was home. Finally.

Minutes later, Sirius appeared at the bedroom door.

"You're early..." Dominique said sarcastically, though there was a bit of truth to that statement. After all, there were plenty of times when he wouldn't come home until dawn.

"I'm sorry..." Sirius said, peeling off his cloak and dumping it on a chair. He walked up to Dominique and kissed her on the forehead. "Crouch wouldn't let me go until I finished the profiles on the Lestranges." He said with a note of bitterness in his voice.

"How long does it take to write up a dumb profile?" Dominique asked.

"Very long, especially if you're supposed to include photos of them and their household...I had to sneak into their house while they were out tonight, to take pictures of the inside of their house..."

"You broke into their home??" Dominique asked increduously.

"Crouch's orders..."

"Did you find anything that would suggest they're still working for Voldemort?"

"Not really..."

"What a waste then..."

Sirius sighed and nodded in agreement as he climbed into bed.

"By the way," Sirius said after a few moments, "Lily and James want to see us tomorrow for lunch."

"Why, what happened?"

"No idea, Lily said they'd tell us tomorrow..."

"Alright..."

"Well, good night then."

"night.."

* * *

"Where are you going, dear?"

"The Potters' house, mum..." Remus answered.

"How long will you be?"

Remus shrugged. "No idea...shouldn't be too long though...do you want me to get Emily?"

Mrs. Lupin nodded.

"Alright, I'll give her a call..." Remus replied, as he went to his mother's bedside and kissed her on the forehead. "And I'll try not to take too long..."

"Thank you, sweety.."

"No problem..."

Remus headed towards the living room and knelt by the fireplace. Sticking his head inside, and dropping the floo powder to the ground, he said "Chadsworth Place!"

"Remus! Hey!"

"Emily...hi..." Remus breathed, trying to overcome the fumes of the fireplace. "I have to go somewhere right now, and my mum wanted company...would you mind"-

"Of course not.." Emily replied with a smile. "I'd be more than happy to come...I'll be over in a few minutes..."

"Ah, thank you so much. You're the best, Emily..." Remus said. "Well, I should get going, I'll see you around..."

"Alright..take care, Remus.."

"You too..."

Remus pulled himself out of the fireplace and disapparated out of the living room. He instantly apparated outside the house of the Potters, Godric's Hollow. As Remus knocked on the door, he thought of Emily. She was so sweet and obliging, always ready to drop everything to help him or his mother out. When his father passed away months before, his mother had been overtaken by a bout of depression, which quickly took over her body and made her weak. She became paranoid, that she too might meet the same end as her husband...being poisoned. Remus sadly recalled the day they found out what had been making his father so sick...Several weeks before he fell ill, Mr. Lupin had received an anonymous letter, that simply read "bearers of the half-breed". Mr. Lupin, who merely assumed it was a joke from some bigoted fool, simply discarded the letter, and thought nothing of it. Little did he realize that the letter had been sealed with a poisonous potion, that when opened, immediately penetrated the skin, and slowly depleted the body until there was nothing left of it.

Remus missed his father terribly. Mr. Lupin was the one who did everything he could to make sure his son grew up normally. He was the one who homeschooled Remus between the time he dropped out of muggle school and the time he started at Hogwarts. His father was his role model...and now he was gone. But if Remus was feeling pain, he had no idea what his mother felt. Mr. Lupin's death hit her horribly, and Remus feared that she would never be the same. And now Emily Jackson, who lived nearby and had graduated from Hogwarts only this year and wanted to train to be a healer, spent most of her time with the Lupins, taking care of his mother, as Remus was busy working in his father's old job, at the publishing company. He absolutely hated it. It was the dullest work, but it was the only work he could find...

* * *

"Remus! Hey!"

Remus glanced up and saw Lily Potter standing at the doorway, holding baby Harry in her arms.

"Hi Lily"-

"Come on in!"

"Thanks..." Remus stepped inside, and as he entered the living room, he realized others were already there; James, Dominique, Sirius, Peter, Alice and Frank, to be exact. "Er...hey guys..." he said, smiling at all his friends.

"Moony! Good to see you!" James said, and grinning broadly he shook his friend's hand. "How's the publishing bit going?"

Remus sighed in response.

"Are they still boring you then?" James asked.

"Well, they decided to shake things up a bit..." Remus replied, "they've been harassing me this past week about writing a book.."

"Really, what kind of book?" Lily asked with her usual interest she displayed when she heard about books.

"My life as a werewolf..."

As Remus had expected, everyone but Lily burst into laughter. The latter seemed quite infuriated by everyone's insensitivity, and physically chastised the person nearest to her, James.

"Oww!" James exclaimed as he rubbed his arm where Lily hit him.  
"I think that's interesting!" Lily said as she frowned at her husband.

Remus shook his head. "I'm with the others, Lily..I think it's ridiculous..."

"It is not"-

"I don't want to share my life with the world..."

"But you could help people better understand lycanthropy..."

"I'm not doing it...I'd feel like I'm being exploited or something.."

Lily rolled her eyes in response as she pulled a thick lock of her red hair out of Harry's mouth.

"That puts me in mind, Remus..." Frank started, "I think we're getting some leads on you dad's case..."

"Really? What'd you find?"

"Well...we're looking into this one bloke named Dolohov..."

"Dolohov?" Sirius cut in. "He sounds familiar..."

"Possible death eater..." Alice said.

Sirius nodded and Frank continued, "well, he's a suspect, because according to the director of Obscurus Books, he submitted his manuscripts to them a few weeks before your dad received that letter...and apparently, it had very anti-mixed blood, mixed breed sentiments expressed in it...so his book was rejected, and well..it was your dad who turned it down..."

"So this Dolohov guy killed my father because his book got turned down?" Remus asked calmly.

"We're not sure..." Frank said quickly. "It's quite possible...but we're still investigating...woops.." Baby Neville, who was being held by his father, managed to pull Frank's wand out of his pocket, and sent sparks flying in all directions.

Remus nodded. "So.." he said, turning to James and Lily, "what was it that you wanted to tell us?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.

The room suddenly fell silent, save for the gurgling noises that Harry and Neville made.

"Well..." James began, "a few days ago, Dumbledore gave us some unsettling news..."

"And we're only telling you guys, because we trust you all...hardly anyone knows about this..." Lily added in.

"...but we have reason to believe that Voldemort's after us, and Harry..." James finished.

Peter, who had been pouring himself tea, accidentally missed and poured all over his saucer at hearing the statement. The others only gaped at Lily and James.

"Why would Dumbledore think that?" Dominique asked suddenly.

Lily frowned. "Well...he had his sources...can't go into them...but he confirmed that in fact Voldemort wants us..."

"...So," James continued, "he wants us to go into hiding, but we're really not up for that...not just yet..."

"so we need all of you guys to keep our whereabouts hushed..." Lily said.

"Can we count on you guys to do that for us?" James asked. Everyone nodded in return, staring blankly at the Potters.

The rest of lunch went by very quietly. No one seemed able to think of a topic appropriate for conversation. Finding the awkward silence unbearable, James finally spoke up.

"So, Frank…" he started, turning to his friend, "I have some files I need to give to Anna…you won't be seeing her tomorrow, will you?"

"No, I don't think so…but I can stop by her office before the end of the day and drop them off, if you'd like…"

"That would be great…let me get the files now, before I forget…" James said as he got up and left the table.

"Wait a sec," Alice started, as she looked from Frank to Sirius, "why don't you just give them to Anna, Sirius?" she asked. "She told me she's going out to lunch with you tomorrow…"  
"Er…yea, ok…" Sirius replied, "I can give them to her…"

Just then, James reentered the room, with several manila folders in his hands.

"Oy James, Sirius is going to give'em to Anna instead. He's seeing her tomorrow…" Frank said.

James nodded and handed the folders to Sirius. "Did Crouch put you guys together for tomorrow's raid?"

Sirius shook his head. "We're going out to lunch…wanted to discuss some stuff…"

James nodded again and glanced at Dominique, who was now stabbing at her potatoes with her fork. He smiled slightly. "Don't worry D," he said, "Anna's got nothing to you! Ow!" James turned to Lily. "That was my foot!"

Lily nodded. "I know…"

"So…" Dominique started, turning to Sirius, "were you ever planning on telling me about this Anna woman?"

"What's there to tell? She's just a work colleague…"

"I've never heard of her…"

"She joined after you took leave…"

"How old is she?"

"Eighteen, I think…just graduated from Hogwarts…"

"Really?"

"Er…yea…"

"Is she pretty?"

Sirius dropped his fork and knife onto the table. "What's with all the third degree??" he asked.

"I'm just asking if she's pretty!" Dominique retorted.

"D, calm yourself…" Lily cut in.

"Yea, really, D…she's not that pretty…" James offered. Lily however, rolled her eyes at him.

"James, you don't have to lie about how you feel. I don't care if you think she's pretty…" Lily said.

"Oh, well, in that case…she's an absolute fox"—

"Then what the hell does that make me?? Chopped liver??" Lily asked incredulously, startling Harry and Neville, both whom were fast asleep in the play pen by the table.

"I thought you said you were ok"—

"With you thinking she's pretty!!" Lily interjected, "Pretty! Not foxy!!"

"But she's nothing to you!!" James said quickly as he got up to tend to the babies. "I mean…really, she pales beside you, Lily. Anyway, she's a blond…a foxy blond is an absolute hound compared to a foxy redhead like yourself!"

"What's wrong with being blond??" Alice asked angrily.

"No, not you Alice!" James said quickly, "You're gorgeous"—

"Don't go looking at my wife!" Frank cut in.

James let out an exasperated groan as he picked Harry up and rocked him back and forth, trying calm him down. "I don't! I don't look at anyone's wives! Leave me alone!!"

"Oh that's right…you just look at the single girls!" Lily snapped.

"Ok, shut up, all of you!" Remus yelled. And everyone did shut up, including Harry and Neville.

Remus got up from his seat, tossing his napkin onto the table.

"Oh come on Moony, you don't have to leave," Sirius said at once, "just because Dominique's gone all jealous"—

"I'm leaving because you all are giving me a headache…" Remus interjected. "…and give James a break, he doesn't have eyes for anyone but Lily…" he muttered. He turned around, and before anyone could say anything, he disapparated out of the Potters' home.

Lunch continued in silence. As Dominique worked through her now mashed up potatoes, she thought of Remus's small burst he had before he took off. And she had been sulking about her miserable life…So she was pregnant, so Sirius had gotten busy with work, and possibly with attractive colleagues…She only had three more months to go until she had the baby…and Sirius was still attentive when he was at home…and after she had the baby, she would start back at work ASAP, and if this Anna woman had any ulterior motives for herself and Sirius, they would disappear when she met Dominique. There. Her life wasn't that bad…Poor Remus though, she thought. These past couple of years he had begun to look so tired and stressed. He always had a look of worry on his face, and if one looked very closely, one could see wisps of gray hair hiding amongst his light brown hair. It was hardly noticeable, 'but still…' Dominique reasoned, 'he's only twenty…he shouldn't look like that at twenty…'

"Oy, Dominique…" Lily started, in efforts to bring about some conversation, "I just remembered…I got a letter from Kierra…"

"Really? How is she?"

"She told me her brother and sister-in-law just had a baby girl! Her name's Nora! She sent me a picture too…" Lily said, as she extended a photo to Dominique.

Dominique took it and glanced down at it. The baby in the photo smiled at Dominique. She had bright blue eyes and had wisps of thin blond hair sticking out of her head.

"She's adorable…" Dominique said as she handed the photo back to Lily. "When was she born?"

"About a month ago…so she's about a year younger than Harry…"

"I miss Kierra…" Alice said suddenly.

"Me too…" Dominique replied.

"And she hasn't even visited since she moved..." Lily added.

"But you know, she's been really busy with work..." James reminded her. "Didn't they have her start teaching classes?"

Lily shrugged. "...but still...she can't be that busy...you know the real reason she isn't coming to visit is because of Remus..."

"Did she actually say that?" Sirius asked.

"No, but"-

"Then you don't know for sure"-

"Oh please," Lily interjected, "I know her better than she knows herself...she thinks that if she comes here, we're all going to hang out together, and either Remus will be there too, thus making her feel awkward, or he won't be there...and then she'd feel bad for leaving him out...so, to avoid all problems, she just doesn't come..."

"What's there to be awkward about?" Sirius asked irritably. "It's been two years, surely they're over each other..."

"That's the problem, Sirius..." Dominique replied. "It's been two years since they've even spoken...that's major awkwardnes right there..."

Sirius only shrugged as he took Harry from his father's arms and bounced him up and down in his lap. "Well, they're a couple of idiots then..."

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Yes, anyone who doesn't see things on the same wavelength as you is an idiot..."

Sirius stopped bouncing Harry, causing the baby to turn around to look curiously at his godfather, wondering why his ride stopped. "That's not true..." Sirius said at once.

"Yes, it is..."

"No, it's not"-  
"Actually Padfoot, it kind of is..." James cut in as he smiled at his friend. "Don't get offended now..."

"I'm trying not to be..." Sirius replied as he turned his attention back to entertaining Harry.

"Hey, I think I'm going to head out now..." Peter said after a few moments as he got up from the table.

"So soon?" Lily asked. "But we've got dessert! And I made your favorite..treacle tart!"

Peter frowned slightly but shook his head. "I really need to go..."

"But you're off for the day, aren't you?" James asked. "Come on, Wormtail, stay a bit longer...help me break the ice that seems to be dominating the better part of this lunch party..." He glanced at Sirius and Dominique, only to see them glaring at each other.

Peter only smiled in return as he grabbed his briefcase. "Really wish I could," he said, "but I can't...need to go to a meeting...kind of an informal-outside of work-meeting.."

"Alright, you can go..." James said resignedly. "...but if we catch you at a death eaters meeting...we're not covering your butt in front of Dumbledore..."

Peter grinned broadly. "Got it..."

"Oh, take some tart though..." Lily said as she got up and headed to the kitchen. A minute later she came back with a small portion of treacle tart packaged up for Peter.

"Thanks Lily, you're the best!" Peter said as he took the dessert. "Well, I'll see you guys later!" and with that, Peter disapparated out of the room.

"So...how's that pregnancy going for you, D?" James asked as they worked their way through dessert.

"Killing me slowly..."

Lily and Alice bother smiled at her.

"Ah, the third trimester..." Lily said wistfully. "All you want to do is just die..."

"But don't worry," Alice said, "just three more months...you'll get there..."

"I just wish it were sooner than later..." Dominique said as she rubbed her stomach. "This is one aggressive baby...she kicks like mad..."

"Probably gets it from her daddy..." James said with a grin.

"Mmm...a female Sirius...that ought to be interesting..." Frank commented.

"I'm really not sure if I should be flattered or offended by you guys..." Sirius said casually.

"Honestly Padfoot, you've been pretty pissy lately...you're not even the one carrying the baby!" James exclaimed.

"How am I being pissy??" Sirius demanded.

James raised an eyebrow at his friend in return.

"Oh ok, that was a little pissy..." Sirius admitted.

"So.." Dominique said, turning her attention back to her female friends, "this whole labor thing...I was there when you guys had Harry and Neville...it looked horrible...is it really as bad as it looks?"

"Well, I don't know how it looked to you, but it was pretty painful..." Alice said. "It's like you're trying to push a watermelon out...only worse..."

"Yea, the whole time, I was just thinking 'oh my gosh' I am NEVER doing this again!" Lily said.

"Well, if you could do it again...and have another kid...would you?" Dominique asked.

Alice and Lily looked at each other. They both smiled and nodded.

"It's the most pain you'll probably ever go through...well except maybe if you get crucio-ed...but when it's all done, you forget about the indescribable pain, because you're overcome by indescribable happiness..." Lily replied.

Alice nodded in agreement. "It's a great feeling...when the healers put the baby in your arms...it's not something you're quick to forget..."

Dominique smiled slightly. "I'm just going to forget about everything else you said about labor, and think about the after-feelings..."

"You do that..." Lily replied.

"But like Dominique said...sooner than later would be great..." Sirius said. "I feel like a heavy weight will be lifted from us after the birth..."

Lily frowned slightly. "I can understand...pregnancy can be pretty trying for both parents...but, be careful what you wish for...it might just happen."

The lunch party fixed their attention on Lily, looking at her questioningly.

"Wisely, and slow, they stumble that run fast." Lily said solemnly. The others continued to look at her questioningly. She simply rolled her eyes and sighed. "Honestly...are Remus and I the only wizard and witch who read Shakespeare??" She asked exasperatedly.

"Probably..." James replied.  
"That quote is from Romeo and Juliet"-

"Ah, the tragic love story where the two dolts kill themselves..." Sirius said.

Lily frowned at him. "You have no appreciation for fine literature..."

"...'cause it's boring..." Sirius replied with a grin. "so, preach on...what little lesson can we learn from the doomed lovebirds?"

"Well, their friar warned them with that line...if you try to move too quickly, you stumble..."

"I don't think there's anything we can do to expedite the pregnancy process..." Dominique said with a laugh.

"But you shouldn't wish to..." Lily said, "it's a natural process that lasts for nine months...just let it run its course..."

Dominique groaned. "Fine...we'll let it run its natural, hellish course...thank you Mrs. Potter, for that bit..."

"Yes, we'll always know who to go to when we need a shot of nature appreciation..." Sirius added.

After some time, both the Longbottoms and the Blacks took their leave. As Lily put a washing charm on the dishwasher, James peeked his head into the kitchen.

"Need some help?" he asked.

"Do you have to ask?" Lily replied with a grin as she tossed her husband his wand. "Clean the table would you?"

"Actually..." he said as he entered the kitchen, "I wanted to ask you..."

"Ah, I should've known..." Lily laughed. "What do you want?"

"Well...I was just thinking...I guess...with all this baby talk with Sirius and D...do you think...maybe...we could try to have another baby sometime?" James asked, looking at his wife with a mix of intimidation and hopefulness.

Lily dropped her own wand into the sink. "Are you serious??" she asked. "You...you want to have another baby? Now??"

"Oh no! Not now! Now is too soon...I mean with Harry and all...he's not even a year old yet...but maybe after that...after he hits his first birthday...we can start trying again? I mean...I'm an only child...I've always wanted siblings...Sirius was the closest thing I could get for a brother," he added, grinning sheepishly, "I just want Harry to have brothers and sisters...or one or the other...whatever we can get..."

Lily smiled slightly. "I agree...I want him to have siblings too..."

"So we can start trying then?" James asked, looking at her with a fresh fury of excitement as he smiled at her with his boyish grin.

Lily nodded. "When Harry gets a little older, when we don't have to tend to him every second of the day...which reminds me...he's unattended right now..."

"I'll take care of him..." James said as he headed for the door. "So we're having another kid then?"

"In a year or so..." Lily replied.

As James headed out the door, Lily fished her wand out of the sink and continued to clean the kitchen. So, they'd have another child... Soon, Lily was grinning as broadly as her husband as she swept the floor.


	35. Chapter 36: 1981

a/n: Ok, if I do badly on my paper that's due tomorrow (which I haven't started yet), I'm blaming all the people who ever wrote to me to "update soon…" lol jk…mustn't blame others for my lack of self control w/ writing :) So I presented some info in this chapter, that occurred in Long Lost Love..but I didn't want a repeat scene, so presented it in another manner; frankly I don't like it that much, but I hate repeating stuff.. :/ newhos, this is where it gets meaty (er so I'd like to think…lol)…it's what I've been waiting to get into since like…hell I can't remember…but it's been a while, so I'm excited about these next few chapters :) yay!

Chapter 36: 1981

Kierra sighed as she looked up at the clock.

"Alright, we'll continue our discussion of the goblin rebellions tomorrow," she said as she flicked her wand at the door, making it open. "Make sure to finish reading chapter seven too, I'm feeling very quiz-happy this week!"

The class groaned in unison as they filed out of the classroom. Kierra grinned at this as she tossed her papers in her bag and headed out the door as well. She slowly made her way down the hall, very glad it was lunch break. As she stepped into her office and shut the door behind her, Kierra let out another sigh…

'Good, no one waiting for me outside my office…for once, I get to eat my lunch in peace…' she thought as she plopped onto the chair behind her desk. With one hand she reached into the drawer and pulled out a sandwich and began to eat, while with the other hand she waved her wand at the window sill across the room and lazily muttered "accio…" between bites of her peanut butter sandwich. Right away, her mail flew over to her and landed on her desk. Kierra put down her sandwich and took a sip of pumpkin juice as she glanced at the letter sitting at the top of the pile.

"Faculty meeting dates…" she muttered as she tossed the letter aside, looking at the next one, "National Curators' Association monthly digest…(she tossed this one aside as well)…ooh!" she squealed as she reached the last letter, one that was addressed to Kierra in very sloppy handwriting, handwriting she recognized from anywhere…

Kierra tore open the letter and grinned. Thank goodness James had only addressed the letter. Kierra glanced briefly at the door to make sure it was shut, so she could enjoy her letter from Lily…

_23rd of April, 1981_

_Dear Kierra,_

_I hope this finds you doing well and in better spirits than when we last talked. I can understand why your boss was angry at you for losing that old goblin skull…it must have cost the institute a fortune! Well, no matter, I'm sure he's over it by now…It's been a few weeks and we haven't gotten any notice from you of you being sacked, quite relieved, I must say. _

_I'm sitting here at my desk with your letter in front of me, so I can answer all of you questions in order. I'm sorry dear, but you are so inquisitive! Anyway, here goes. James, Harry and I are all doing great. Harry's actually taken his first steps! He can only walk a little though—he tends to fall down every few steps he takes; but that's ok, he'll learn to walk properly soon enough…and another piece of exciting news for you about Harry—he finally learned to say 'daddy'! James is absolutely thrilled…he's been taking Harry everywhere, to his parents' house, my parents' house…everywhere…just to show Harry off…very silly if you ask me. I never went flaunting around when Harry learned to say 'mummy'…Well, that's James for you. _

_What else? Oh, right. The war. As you know, I can't explain too much, should this letter be intercepted. I think we're overall doing better now…Moody is absolutely spectacular, he catches dark wizards by the dozens. As Alice might have told you already, she and Frank actually escaped Voldemort again. That makes it three times now! One more than myself and James. Not that it's anything to brag about, I know. It's just…I don't even know the word to use…startling, I suppose. That puts me in mind, Kierra. Should you write back, please do not put our address on the letter, just put 'Potter', you're owl is very clever and I'm sure he'll be able to find us without an address. And once again, please be careful about what you say, just in case. James, Harry and I have had to move twice now these past few months, and frankly, I'm a bit tired of moving now. The problem is, we keep hearing things from our spies, and it seems as if Voldemort's knowing our every move. We've steadily become more and more isolated, in fear that someone within our acquaintance is playing spy. Right now we're pretty much only communicating with our close circle of friends, a few colleagues from the ministry, and of course the folks from the order._

_I suddenly have realized that this letter has become progressively depressing. And yet I have another sad piece of information to give you, as something horrible as happened since writing the above. As you know, Dominique and Sirius's baby was supposed to be due this very month. However, Dominique went into labor exactly three months early; it actually happened a few hours after we had lunch with them. The gang met us at our house. It was all the same; we ate, Dominique and Sirius bickered a little"—_

Kierra stopped when she saw that the next few words had been scratched out. She pulled the letter closer and looked carefully at it. "Remus left abruptly"—Kierra read aloud. She frowned as she looked at the scratched out, incomplete sentence. Did Lily think her incapable of hearing about Remus? Kierra reluctantly shrugged this idea off and continued…

…_and as usual Peter had to leave early. Seems as though he always has to go back to work for something or the other. Well, a few hours after everyone left, someone from St. Mungo's flooed over, and told us that Dominique Black was in labor. We rushed over immediately, but not before owling Sirius, as he had gone back to work after lunch. Several hours later, Sirius had arrived, and Dominique had begun to go deliver. Here's the part I have been dreading to say…"_

Kierra glanced down at the stains on the parchment. They looked like dried up tear stains…

…_most unfortunately, Dominique had a miscarriage…"_

Kierra's eyes widened as she fell back slightly in her chair. She felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. How could this be? How…? Kierra looked down at the letter and reread the sentence over. It couldn't be…

…_the healers ran some tests and examined the baby, only to find that she had died sometime during the contractions. Apparently, as Dominique told me later on that week, the healers had warned her and Sirius last year when they were having trouble getting pregnant. Do you remember when Dominique thought she was pregnant, back in our seventh year? I think she really was…but that too was a miscarriage, it just happened at a much, much earlier stage. As it turns out, the healers had warned them that child bearing would be difficult and very risky for Dominique, because they found her reproductive organs to be very weak. She explained that even if she were to get pregnant, the likelihood of being able to keep the fetus alive and give birth to it was very slim. That's why we're now sure that this in fact was not Dominique's first miscarriage. I know, this is truly sad…they wanted a child so much. Sirius told James and me that he wanted to consider adoption, but Dominique had shot the idea down. She wanted very much to be the biological mother of her child._

_Harry is crying now, I reckon he needs to be changed again. Kierra, I've very sorry, I absolutely hate to be the bearer of such bad tidings. Please write when you can. James just left for work (Crouch put us on rotational shifts so one of us can be home with Harry), but he sends his warmest salutations to you. Please keep all of us in your thoughts._

_With Love,_

_Lily Potter _

Kierra frowned as she replaced the letter on the desk. Things were not looking good for her friends…The Potters were being chased by Voldemort and his followers, as were the Longbottoms. She had no idea what to make of Sirius and Dominique…Kierra had recently had a row with Dominique, and they hadn't spoken or written for several months; and she was never really close to Sirius, so they didn't keep in touch either. This happened three months ago? Kierra sighed as she folded the letter and stuck it in her desk drawer. …So she was the first of the friends to faze out… 'Well,' she thought, 'it was bound to happen, living across the ocean and all…'

As she glanced through her plan book, Kierra wondered what had become of Remus. It had been two years now, and none of her friends ever mentioned him, except a few months ago, when James had told her that Mr. Lupin had passed away. The news was quite shocking to Kierra. She greatly respected and admired Remus's father, and the loss suddenly drove Kierra to write to Remus—only, she never sent the letter. She had written a long letter, asking him how he was, expressing her sadness over the death of Mr. Lupin, and telling him he and his family were in her thoughts… But just as she sealed the envelope, anxiety suddenly filled her. What if he didn't want to hear from her? It had been about two years since they had spoken…surely if he cared for her, at least for her friendship, he would have written. But he hadn't. Maybe he'd feel awkward, receiving a letter from her. After careful thought, Kierra replaced her letter to Remus inside her desk drawer and only hoped that her friends were there for him…

Kierra tossed her other junk mail into her drawer when she finished looking through them. As she shut the drawer, Kierra noticed Lily's letter peaking out from underneath the junk mail. 'Poor Dominique…' Kierra thought. It was actually because of Remus that the two weren't speaking anymore. She remembered receiving a letter from Dominique months ago, announcing that she was pregnant. Kierra remembered her going on for several pages about how happy she and Sirius were about the baby, but how they were in dispute over whom the godfather would be—James or Remus. Sirius had wanted James, because he was Harry's godfather, and he wanted to return the honour to his friend. Dominique on the other hand, being so close to Remus, wanted him as the godfather.

"…anyway," Kierra remembered Dominique saying in her letter, "I want to do something nice for Remus. His father's ill, he's despised in the community for being what he is, and he doesn't seem to have a life anymore…I mean, I know he'll love our child no matter what, but I think he'd love to be dubbed 'godfather'…it would give him a sense of duty, someone he can care for. Maybe it'll make up for his lack of love life. He's practically sworn off women, you know, ever since you left…"

That had set Kierra off. Though they were only written words, she could just imagine Dominique writing those words with the intent to make Kierra feel guilty…as if it were her fault that Remus had a pitiful life.

Kierra wrote back, congratulating Dominique on the pregnancy, suggesting that maybe they choose Peter to be the godfather, as he seldom got chosen for anything, and kindly asking Dominique not to put the blame on her for any problems Remus was having. "He was the one who left me, you know…" Kierra wrote, "shagged, slept, and left. What was I supposed to do, send him flowers or something?"

The mail-fighting had continued for about a month, with Dominique defending Remus's actions, and Kierra fending for her self. Finally, she had had it when she received Dominique's last letter, in which she accused Kierra of being selfish and inconsiderate for breaking up with Remus.

"You were one of the best things that ever happened to him," Dominique wrote, "You put life into him, and you made him happy. Now you've just sucked the life out of him, Kierra. Were you thinking of anyone else besides yourself when you decided to leave? Probably not, very typical of you…"

Furious, Kierra collected all of Dominique's letters and threw them into her fireplace…and hadn't written to her since.

And now, Kierra was finding herself very sympathetic towards her. Dominique couldn't help it…she had a short temper, and loved Remus, probably more than she loved Sirius, though in a more platonic way, of course. Perhaps Dominique's anger towards her was justified…and now, she lost her baby. Perhaps she should write Dominique…but the incident occurred nearly three months ago…surely Dominique would be angry at her for such a delayed sympathy note…

Kierra sighed and looked at her watch. Great…five minute to get to the museum..

Kierra got up and grabbed her bag. She hated giving tours to little children…they were always touching everything and they always ogled at her when she talked, as if they'd never heard a British person speak before… As she climbed into her fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder, Kierra wondered what she'd say to Dominique if she were to write her a letter…

* * *

Dominique shifted slightly in bed as she turned the page of her book. She glanced sideways, scowling at the man next to her.

"What?" he asked in a coarse voice.

"Put that out…it's disgusting…" Dominique replied as she turned back to her book.

Sirius rolled his eyes as he put his cigarette to his lips again. "I'll put it out when you put out the lights…"

"I'm not tired."

"Well I am…"

"Well maybe if you didn't smoke like a chimney, you wouldn't be so tired…"

"A few cigs a day isn't smoking like a chimney, and for your information, it's 1 in the morning. Most normal people are pretty beat by this time…"

"There's some extra blankets in the linen closet, and a fairly comfortable sofa in the living room."

"This is my room, and I plan on sleeping here." Sirius said.

"Well, it's mine too, and I plan on reading in here"—Dominique replied—"hey!!"

Sirius had grabbed Dominique's book and threw it on the ground. "Go to sleep." He said curtly.

Dominique glared at him briefly before she turned to her nightstand and crushed the flames of candlelight with her hand. She fell back on her pillows and stared at the ceiling for several minutes.

"Put that fucking cigarette out," Dominique said testily, "now."

Dominique glanced at the clock through the darkness. It had been about half an hour since the lights had gone out. She glanced sideways, and saw Sirius lying on his side, with his eyes closed. She wondered if he was really asleep.

Dominique shifted her gaze to the small candle that flickered on their dresser. It was a tiny candle, producing just enough light to keep the room from being pitch black. She hated total darkness. Dominique inhaled the gentle scent of lavender that the candle produced. Such a soothing scent…She glanced again at the dresser; the candlelight managed to illuminate some of the photos in close proximity. The one closest to the tiny flame was a photo of herself with Sirius. It was their wedding…

Dominique frowned as the couple in the photo smiled and waved to her cheerfully. Not bothering to wipe the tears forming in her eyes, Dominique quietly rested her head against her pillows, lying on her side so she had her back to Sirius.

Sirius opened his eyes slightly when he felt Dominique shifting around in bed. He saw her sitting up, leaning against the headboard, as she stared across the room. He watched the tears falling silently down her cheeks as she lay back down after a few moments.

With slight hesitation, Sirius extended his arm out, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she replied without so much as turning to look at him, "go back to sleep."

Sirius sat up. He watched Dominique, whose eyes were closed. Even in the darkness, he could see shiny tears settling in the corners of her eyes. Sirius wondered if she was really trying to sleep, or if she was just trying to avoid conversation with him.

Sirius sighed quietly as he lay back down. He glanced sideways at Dominique, whose back was turned to him. It was hard to imagine that a few months ago she was big and pregnant. Almost by magic, Dominique had lost all her pregnancy weight, and looked like her slim self again, if not thinner (he was certain Dominique would never use magic to alter her body). Sirius studied the curves of her body, wanting so much to caress them. It had been so long…but because of the pregnancy…yes…the pregnancy—the current tension between them was because of the miscarriage.

Well, not entirely. They were certainly depressed about not being able to have children. However, there were alternatives; alternatives that Dominique was not willing to look at. What was the big deal about having a child that wasn't their own blood? Sirius could not understand why his wife was so against adoption. They were helping out a child in any case, giving him or her a home. He couldn't understand what was so wrong with that…

Sirius ran a hand through his shoulder length hair, which was only a few inches shorter than his wife's hair. Who was he kidding? As much as he wanted to blame the tension on the miscarriage, he knew it was a very indirect factor, and that there were other things that played a bigger part in causing his marital problems.

He was keeping things from Dominique. He didn't want to hide things from her, but he had no choice. What was worse was that she knew he had secrets—and her inability to pry them out of Sirius led her to distrust him. He could understand her frustration. It would soon be over though. After the war, he could tell all. In the meantime, he needed to do his best to keep Dominique in the dark. It was after all, for his friends' safety.

He stared at the space between himself and Dominique. Sirius closed his eyes and sighed, remembering the days when they would be entangled in each other's bodies every night. Now, every night there was a one to two feet gap between them on their king size bed…

Ever so quietly, Sirius scooted down to Dominique's side of the bed. He carefully slid his hand under the sheets, and rested it on Dominique's hip.

"Dominique…" he whispered, rubbing her hip gently.

No answer.

"Dominique…" he started again. "How about it?"

"I'm tired…" Dominique muttered softly.

Unabashed, Sirius leaned forward, planting a kiss on her cheek. "Come on," he said softly into her ear. As he trailed kisses down her neck, Sirius slid his hand across her stomach, pulling her closer to him…

For an instant, he thought he had won. Dominique leaned against him, and even craned her neck slightly, to allow him to continue kissing her. But just as victory registered in Sirius, Dominique seemed to change her mind, and immediately recoiled from him. However, before Dominique could so much as pull away from him, Sirius tightened his grip around her waist, and forcefully pulled her against himself.

Dominique let out a small gasp as she tried to free herself from Sirius's grip.

"What do you think you're—ooh!"

Sirius had let go of her, and she fell forward onto the bed, landing on her stomach.

"What the hell"—

"Don't what the hell me, Dominique," Sirius said angrily, "I'm your husband"—

"So what? That doesn't that give you the divine right to do whatever you want to me!" Dominique retorted.

"Dominique, I wasn't trying to rape you or anything!"

"When it's not consented, it is"—

"Well, it's one of the so-called privileges of being married, D!" Sirius barked as he got out of bed, "when you're married, you can shag your spouse and not have any legal problems"—

"What kind of rubbish is that?" Dominique cut in, "if I don't want to"—

"But you're supposed to want to!" Sirius shouted. "We're married, we're supposed to be happy, and you're supposed to like it when I get near you!"

"Well, I don't"—

"No shit, Dominique! I know you don't like it! But what the hell am I supposed to do when it's been five months, huh?! I mean, damnit, I'm your husband for God's sake!"

"Well maybe if you acted more like a husband, I'd be keener on doing it with you!" Dominique spat.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that maybe if you actually wanted to be with me…wanted to spend time with me, talking with me, NOT just shagging, Sirius…that's what I mean!" Dominique cried angrily.

"I do all of those things"—

"Like hell you do," Dominique said exasperatedly, "you spend more time with Anna than you do with me!"

"Is this what it's all about?" Sirius asked incredulously. "Anna? You're jealous of a bloody colleague? It's not my fault that Crouch always assigns us together!"

"Well you could always tell him to put you with James or someone!"

"Why should I?" Sirius barked, "She's not bothering me! I actually like working with her! She's the most productive partner I've had these two years!"

"Well, I don't like her"—

"That's too damn bad, Dominique. We're simply working as professionals together, and if you have a problem with it"—

"What, you think it's irrational of me to hate the woman who's after my husband?" Dominique asked.

"She's not after me, D"—

"Please, first time I saw her, I hated her. She wants to get into your pants, I know it. And what's worse is that you know it too, and you're not doing anything to get away from her!"

"You know, I don't understand you sometimes," Sirius said angrily as he absently lit up another cigarette, "we're married and you go ballistic every time I come near you. I don't think you don't even want me anymore. But when some other woman comes along and gives me the attention that you've been neglecting to do, you get all pissed. What the hell do you want from me? And where the bloody hell do you think you're going??" he asked as Dominique headed towards the door.

"None of your business…"

Sirius raced forward and grabbed Dominique by the wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

"You tell me where you're going"—

"You never tell me where you go, so why should I tell you where I'm going?"

"What's there to tell? I'm either going to work, or James's place, or Peter's!"

"Oh, but you don't go to Remus's"—

"He lives further away!"

"Or Anna's?"

"Damnit, woman, I have never been to Anna's house before!" Sirius shouted as he let go of Dominique.

"Uh huh"—

"You know what, I've got vertiserum in my briefcase. You want me to take some, and you can ask again?" Sirius asked. "Yea, let's do that…" Sirius walked back to his desk and opened his briefcase up. He pulled out a small vile and turned around to face Dominique—only to find that she was gone.

Frustrated, Sirius sighed and walked towards the window. He looked outside and saw Dominique on the lawn, mounting her broom. Instead of calling out to her, he watched as she shot into the air, and slowly disappearing into the night sky. Sirius sighed and turned around. He glanced momentarily at the vile in his hand before he hurled it across the room, letting it smash against the wall.

* * *

The next morning, Sirius awoke to a loud clattering noise. He sat up quickly and rubbed his eyes. The noise was coming from downstairs. Grabbing his wand, Sirius quietly went downstairs, following the noise. He stopped in front of the kitchen when he saw who was making it.

"Where the hell were you last night?" Sirius asked hoarsely as he put his wand down. "I stayed up half the night waiting for you!"

"And good morning to you too…" Dominique replied curtly as she placed a plate of scrambled eggs on the table for Sirius. "I fancied a little fresh air, that's all."

After a moment's silence, Sirius nodded and sat down at the table.

"By the way," he said after a few minutes, "the Potters are coming over tonight."

Dominique, who was about to take a sip of her coffee, lowered her mug and looked at Sirius warily. "tonight?" she asked. "And you're telling me now?"

"I only invited them yesterday…"

"Well, why didn't you tell me yesterday?"

"Slipped my mind…"

"Yea, a lot of things seem to slip your mind these days…" Dominique muttered as she headed to the kitchen counter to get a bagel.

"What was that?"

"Nothing…" Dominique replied.

* * *

"Oh, D!" Lily exclaimed happily as she hugged her friend, "It's so good to see you! Seems like forever…"

"I know…We're always working different hours…never get to see you!" Dominique replied.

As they pulled away from each other, Lily frowned slightly.

"Something wrong?" Dominique asked.

"Oh, no…" Lily replied quickly. "I just, uh"—

"Lily, hey!"

Lily and Dominique turned around to see Sirius coming out of the kitchen.

"D, you better check on the soup…I think I did something to it…" Sirius said.

Dominique only rolled her eyes. "I thought I told you just to stir it occasionally…"

"I did! But then it looked kind of runny…so I thought I should add some stuff"—

"Say no more…" Dominique muttered as she headed towards the kitchen.

Sirius shrugged and turned to Lily, and James, who had just entered the living room with Harry in his arms.

"Come on in guys," Sirius said, as he led them into the living room.

"Anyone else coming?" Lily asked.

"Oh…Peter's coming, isn't he?" James asked.

"Yea, he is," Sirius replied. "Alice and Frank couldn't make it though…"

"What about Remus?" Lily asked.

"Oh…well"—to Sirius's relief, the door bell rang, and he quickly got up to answer it. A moment later he reappeared with Peter by his side.

"So what about Remus now?" Lily asked, looking at Sirius warily.

"Well…he couldn't make it either…"

"Oh," Lily said, with a note of disappointment in her voice. "I really miss his company…he never seems to be able to make it to anything anymore…he must be awfully busy taking care of his mum."

Sirius and James exchanged a fleeting look before nodding in agreement.

Just then, Dominique reappeared at the living room entrance. "Oh! James, Peter, hey!" she said brightly.

The others looked up, and Peter and James smiled and said hello to her.

However, James did a double take at Dominique. "D, you're a toothpick!" he said with a note of surprise in his voice.

"Well you could hardly expect me to keep all that water weight on…" Dominique replied with slight amusement in her voice, though she felt a bit of uneasiness in discussing the matter, since she couldn't even refer to her pregnancy without feeling awkward.

"Well, of course not…but still…" James said, as he turned to Sirius, "you need to re-fatten her up…"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at his friend. "I'll try, mate…"

James smiled in return, but just as Dominique returned to the kitchen, his smile turned into a frown.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Oh good God, mate, what are you blind?" James asked. "What happened to D? Why is she so freakishly skinny?"

"Freakishly?" Sirius asked.

"Well, not quite freakish…but she's well on her way to getting there…doesn't she ever eat?"

"Er…yea I suppose…"

"What do you mean, you suppose?" Lily asked. "When I hugged her, I felt like I was hugging a ten year old or something…"

"I think you guys are hallucinating…she looks fine to me…" Sirius said.

"That's probably because you see her every day…" James replied. "We haven't seen her in weeks…and trust us, she looks different…"

Sirius only shrugged.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked suddenly.

Sirius turned to her. "Nothing…"

"Are you and D ok?" she asked, looking very concerned.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yea, we're fine…well…we'll be fine…after this bloody war is over, we'll be fine…"

Lily, James and Peter nodded in understanding.

"Dinner's ready!!" Dominique called out from the kitchen.

"Delicious…" Lily said as she helped herself to another roll. "Outdone yourself as always…"

Dominique smiled slightly. "Thanks"—

"D," James interrupted, "you made this fabulous meal, and you've hardly eaten anything yourself! Take some"—

"No, I'm not that hungry…really…James!"

James had leaned forward and dumped several pieces of chicken onto Dominique's plate. "Good stuff, that protein! Eat up now!"

Dominique sighed and shook her head as she continued to eat. When she had finished, she excused herself from the table to use the bathroom.

"Geez woman, you went like a minute ago!" James said cheerily, only to receive a scowl from Dominique in return. "That's a pretty active bladder…" James continued after she left.

He looked sideways, where Harry was sitting on his mum's lap. "Just like you Harry!" he said in a baby voice, tickling his son's foot. "Yea, you wet yourself all the time! Yes you do! Yes you do!" he continued in his baby voice.

"James, really…" Lily said, rolling her eyes at her husband, but smiling at the same time.

"Hey, how come Remus isn't here?" Dominique asked as she reentered the dining room.

"Sorry?"

"I know Alice and Frank had to work…but Remus was free…how come he didn't come?"

"Busy…" James and Sirius said at once.

Dominique and Lily shared looks for a moment before turning back to their husbands.

"Doing what?" Dominique pressed on.

James sighed. "We ought to get talking now, Padfoot…"

"About what?" Lily asked.

"Well…Sirius and I have been discussing stuff for a while," James said as he absentmindedly took Harry from Lily's arms and cradled him. "We all know for certain that Voldemort's after us…and that he has got an insider working for him, telling him our every move…"

"And you guys hardly socialize with anyone now…" Sirius said, "the spy has to be someone in our close acquaintance."

Suddenly Lily's eyes widened. "You don't think"—

James and Sirius nodded.

Lily stood up quickly, staring at James angrily. "How could you think that?!" she demanded, advancing on her husband, who too had stood up and was now backing away from her. "How could you think Remus is the spy?! He's one of your best friends!"

"Lily, listen to me…" James said, "Voldemort's known to have all sorts of people on his side! Giants, goblins…and the latest news at the ministry is that he's been taking on werewolves"—

"How dare you use that against him!!" Lily shouted angrily as she paced after James, who was walking backwards around the dinner table. "I could just kill you for your stupidity James!"

"But Lily"—

"And this must be why he never comes to see any of us! You two bafoons haven't been inviting him to anything, have you?!"

"What? No! That'd be too obvious! We invite him to some stuff"—

"You dolt!" Lily exclaimed. "I could just kill you"—

"I've got a baby on me"—

"Drop the baby…no, no! I mean…put him down gently!" Lily said quickly.

"Why, so you can strangle me before I finish explaining?" James asked. "Heck no…"

"Fine…" Lily said as she advanced on her husband.

"Ok not another inch forward! I've got a leaky baby, and I know how to use him!" James said as he held Harry out at Lily.

"James"—

"Don't make me use the other end!"

"James, sit down."

It was not Lily this time, but Dominique. James frowned and sat down, followed by Lily.

"You just better not let her kill me before I can explain everything to her…" James said.

"You better explain to all of us…" Dominique replied. "I'm also very confused as to why you think Remus is the spy…"

"Ok listen," Sirius said, "the spy has to be someone in our close acquaintance…"

"But we have quite a few close acquaintances…" Lily said.

"Yea, but how many of them know all our whereabouts?" James asked. "Not many…"

"Look, Lily…James, Peter and I have been friends with Remus since we were eleven, we've been best friends…" Sirius said, "he's the last person any of us would've imagined…the last person any of us would've wanted…but it fits."

"How?" Dominique and Lily asked at once.

"Think about it…" James said, "He's clever…one of the smartest in our class…Voldemort would never get an idiot for a spy…"

"But still…that's not good enough reason…" Dominique protested.

"But look at his character, his personality…" James continued. "He's"—

"Charming, sweet, sensitive, caring, gentle, thoughtful"—

"quiet, unemotional, mysterious, and extremely calm…" Sirius interjected.

"So what if he's calm?" Lily asked.

"And unemotional? He just keeps his feelings to himself! So what if he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve?" Dominique added.

"Well, here's the thing. It's the perfect cover up." James said. "That's the one thing about Remus that's always stumped us…it was always so hard to tell how he felt. You think he's feeling happy, but in reality he's not. And he's always calm, even in the most extreme, nerve wrecking situations. That just doesn't add up, unless he has ulterior motives…"

I just can't believe this…" Lily muttered. "Remus?"

"I don't like it anymore than you," James said gently. "He's always been one of our best friends…but you and I know that there's someone in our group who's betraying us…and he fits the bill…"

"But listen…but listen, he can't know that we think this…" Sirius said quickly. "We still see him sometimes, because we don't want it to look obvious…"

"And he knows that we think there's a spy…he just doesn't know we caught on…" James added.

"I just don't see it…" Dominique muttered. She slowly turned to Sirius. "Is this what you've been keeping from me?" she asked.

Sirius nodded, glancing briefly at James.

"D, where are you going?" Lily asked, as she saw Dominique get up and head out of the kitchen.

"I just want to be alone…think about all this…" Dominique replied.

As soon as he heard the sound of the bedroom door shut, James immediately turned to Sirius.

"She doesn't know everything, does she?"

Sirius shook his head. "I haven't told her about the prophecy…or about you all going into hiding…"

"I think it's safe to tell her…" Lily said. "I trust her."

"The only thing is," Sirius replied, "I'm worried about her talking to Remus…I don't think she's very convinced…and she's good friends with him…she might tell"—

"She wouldn't…" Lily said at once, though she no longer talked confidently. "even if she's not convinced…heck, I'm not even convinced…"

James and Sirius looked at each other again.

"Lily, please, trust us on this one. You and Harry are the most important things in my life. I've thought all of this through with Sirius. Please, just trust me…" James said, looking at his wife pleadingly.

Finally, Lily nodded. "When and where are we going into hiding then?" she asked.

"I want to consult Dumbledore first…" James said.

"Speaking of whom, have you talked to him about this Remus theory?" Lily asked.

"Not yet…" James replied. "I'm going to see him tomorrow first thing…and we'll talk about everything…"

Lily nodded again. "We should get going, James." She said quietly.

James nodded and got up. "Right. Hey, Padfoot…try to keep Dominique at bay a little longer, would you? Just in case…"

"Course" Sirius replied.

Sirius followed Lily, James, Harry and Peter outside. He watched Peter disapparate after saying goodbye. He then turned to James, who was helping to fit Harry in his baby seat on his broom.

"Let me know how the meeting goes…" Sirius said quietly.

James nodded. "I will. Just...keep an eye on Dominique."

Sirius nodded.

"…tell her to gain some weight too…" he added, smiling slightly.

Sirius only rolled his eyes in return. Soon, the Potters had kicked off, and had disappeared into the night. Hands in his pockets, Sirius slowly made his way back into the house.

Suddenly remembering Dominique, Sirius went into the bedroom to check on her. When he came in, he found her lying in bed with the lights out. He drew closer and saw that her eyes were closed. Her body heaved gently to the delicate rhythm of her breathing. Feeling a surge of affection for his wife, Sirius leaned forward and touched her cheek. It was soft, warm, and moist. He frowned as he thought of Dominique crying herself to sleep. Sirius sighed heavily as he undressed himself and climbed into bed. Hopefully the war would end soon…


	36. Chapter 37: Broken Vows

Chapter 37: Broken Vows

"Prongs, hey!" Sirius exclaimed as his friend suddenly appeared in his fireplace.

"Padfoot"—James coughed.

"How'd your meeting go with Dumbledore?" Sirius asked as he helped his friend out of the fireplace.

James shook his head and looked Sirius squarely in the eyes. "Is D here?" he asked quietly.

"Er, no…she's out shopping…"

"Good…" James replied, taking a seat in the living room.

"So what happened?" Sirius pressed on, looking at James with concern.

"Well…I explained to him how we thought Remus was the spy"—

"And what did he think?"

"He seemed a bit wary…didn't reject the idea, but he didn't agree either…said he wasn't sure, but we should definitely keep an eye on him…"

"Right."

"But here's the problem…Lily and I are having one too many close calls with Voldemort. The other night's incident makes it three times now…we reckon we should take Dumbledore's advice and go into hiding…"

"I agree with him," Sirius replied. "But what's the problem?"

James sighed. "Well, we'd have to tell our closest friends we're hiding…otherwise things can get sticky…"

Sirius looked at him questioningly. "…And?"

"Well, there's the Remus factor. Do we tell him? I mean, I suppose he'd find out anyway…and I'm worried that if we didn't tell him, and he found out, then he'd catch on to the fact that we think he's the spy…he can't know that we know…"

Sirius nodded in understanding. He rubbed his chin pensively. "We should tell him." He finally said.

"…and he should know who the secret keeper is too, shouldn't he?" James asked. "I mean, we're still not even positive that it's him…"

"Secret keeper?" Sirius asked.

"Oh yea, Dumbledore said our best bet was the fidelius charm. That requires a secret keeper"—

"Right. I know how it works." Sirius replied. "Who's going to be your secret keeper? Dumbledore?"

James shrugged. "He offered to do so, but I told him I trusted you to be it."

Sirius gaped at his friend. James was after all, putting his life, as well as his wife's and son's lives in his hands.

"I trust you with my life" James said with a small grin, seeming to read his friend's mind. "The unspoken agreement of the marauders…we die before we let anything happen to our fellow men…"

Sirius nodded, but frowned slightly. "Well, clearly not all of our fellow marauders believe that…"

James sighed. "We need to give it more time, Padfoot…we need to be fairly certain that it's Remus before we take any serious action…"

"What about hiding?"

"Well, that can't really wait…we'll be doing it soon…which reminds me, Dumbledore wants to see you too. Said he'll stop by later on tonight…"

Sirius nodded in response.

"So…" James said slowly, glancing around the room casually. "How's Dominique doing?"

"She's alright…" Sirius replied.

"And how are you guys doing?"

"We're ok…this whole day's gone by fairly pleasant. I suppose though it's because she's been out the whole day…"

"Shopping? All day?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh no, she had work this morning…Crouch had her come in at like five A.M… came back around one for lunch, and then took off."

James nodded. "Hey…" he said suddenly, "I've got an idea…"

"that concerns…"

"how we figure out if Remus is the spy or not!"

"do tell…"

"We use D!"

"D?"

"Yes! It's perfect…she's still very close to him…if she spent enough time with him alone, and perhaps pretended to be leaning towards Voldemort's cause…maybe he'd give something away…or let something slip…"

"I dunno…" Sirius replied, looking skeptical, "Remus rarely confides in anyone…"

"But if anyone, it'd be Dominique, right?"

"I thought it'd be us…well, I guess it used to be us…" Sirius replied glumly.

"Well…should we give it a try?" James asked.

Sirius shrugged as he pulled out a box of cigarettes from his pocket. "I dunno if she'll agree…she's still skeptical, you know…"

"Well this is for that very purpose! To clarify things up!"

"I dunno…I'll talk to her…but I can't make any promises…"

"Just turn the old Padfoot charm on her, mate!"

"I dunno," Sirius said again as he twirled his cigarette between his fingers, "these days Dominique seems awfully good at repelling that charm…but I'll see what I can do…"

"Alright, well, I've got to get going now. You see what you can do…and I'm thinking we perform the fidelius charm in a couple of days. I still need to talk to Lily."

"Sounds good. Just let me know when you're ready…" Sirius replied as he waved his friend goodbye and watched him disapparate.

* * *

About an hour later, as Sirius was getting ready to go to work, he heard a cracking noise from outside his room.

"Back so soon?" Sirius called out, not even looking up to see who it was.

"Nothing at the mall to hold my interest long enough…" the voice replied.

Sirius turned around to see Dominique, standing at the entrance of the bedroom. "Though you still managed to bring home several shopping bags full of toys…all undoubtedly made of leather, silk, or diamonds…" he replied as he knelt down to tie his shoes.

"No diamonds this time," Dominique replied, "a set of pearl earrings maybe, but no diamonds…"

"An extraordinary feat...We should have a party…"

"Before, I forget, I also got you a toy"—

"Listen D, I need to talk to you"— They spoke at the same time.

"Sorry?" they asked in unison.

"You got something for me?" Sirius asked.

"And you needed to talk to me?" Dominique asked at the same time.

"You first…" they said at once.

"First the present…" Sirius said.

"First tell me what you wanted to say to me…you've got to go to work in a bit…" Dominique replied.

Sirius sighed in defeat.

"Well," Sirius began slowly, trying to find the perfect arrangement of words so as to not offend Dominique in any way, "James was just over…told me they're going to go into hiding soon…" He glanced up to Dominique, who simply nodded for him to continue. "Well, this whole Remus thing…we're still not sure about it"—

"What'd Dumbledore say?" Dominique cut in.

"He was also a bit suspicious…wanted us to keep an eye on him…"

Dominique nodded in understanding.

"…so, here's the thing we want you to do"—

"Who's we?"

"James and me…"

"Right."

"Well, we were thinking…of course for the purpose of confirming our suspicions of Remus," Sirius added quickly, "we wanted you to try to get something out of Remus"—

"You want me to spy on him?" Dominique asked, looking at Sirius incredulously.

"Not spy on him, per say…" Sirius said quickly, "just, uh…spend more time with him…try to get him talking…look for any signs that might indicate"—

"Forget it, Sirius. I, unlike you, plan on remaining loyal to my friends"—

"I_ am_ loyal to my friends"—

"Just James! Anyway, who are you to talk about loyalty, suspecting Remus like that"—

"Well you're not anymore qualified to talk about it than I am, D." Sirius replied curtly, his temper rising. "Who is, anyway, during a war? I've had the same circle of friends since I was eleven years old. And from time to time, we've risked much more than house points and expulsion to save each other's arses…that was loyalty. And now, one of them has gone and double crossed us, and when that happens, loyalty goes to hell"—

"How can you say that"—

"D, can't you understand? We're in a bloody war, here! You can't just trust someone because they're your friend!"

"Then who am I supposed to trust??" Dominique asked angrily.

"The people on our side!!"

"Remus IS on our side!"

"Prove it!"

Dominique looked warily at Sirius. "Why should I? I've never had to prove your innocence, why should I prove his"—

Sirius laughed. "Because his loyalty's been put into question. No one's questioned mine."

"Well I'm questioning you right now."

"You honestly think I might be a spy?" Sirius asked, looking almost amused.

"Well, you're just as much a possibility as Remus is"—

"Right," Sirius interrupted curtly, "after all, I am a Black…but wait, I forgot…I was disowned for being a blood traitor…and unless I'm mistaken, I don't think Voldemort is particularly fond of people like me…"

"I'm not accusing you, Sirius. I'm simply saying that Remus cannot be a spy…so sorry if the analogy confused you." Dominique added with a bitter note.

Sirius sighed as he grabbed his briefcase. "Listen, I'm going to work now, so this conversation is done. I'm sick of arguing with you over Remus. If you want to believe he's still our friend, fine. I really don't give a damn anymore. But under no circumstances are you allowed to divulge this secret by telling him our thoughts on the matter. We're still suspicious, and you better not tell him that. Do you understand?"

Dominique stared after her husband, her mouth falling slightly open in surprise. "Oh yea, I understand. I understand a lot more than you think I do…"

Sirius turned around, looked questioningly at Dominique. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that I've come to an understanding that you are not the man I married two years ago."

"People change…"

"People are supposed to change for the better!" Dominique shouted angrily after her husband, who was walking down the hallway.

"I have!"

"No you haven't!" Dominique shouted as she followed Sirius into the kitchen. "You've become insensitive and arrogant, Sirius Black…you don't care about your friends, you don't care about me"—

"I do too!"

"Just James!"

"That's not true," Sirius said angrily, "you're just still hung up over Remus, but I care about the rest of my friends."

"And what about me?" Dominique continued. "You don't tell me anything"—

"What the hell are you talking about, D? I just told you everything yesterday"—

"That wasn't everything. I know there's a lot more you're keeping from me." Dominique replied curtly. "And to top it off, you're still friendly with Anna"—

"Oh would you just drop it with Anna? I'm sick of you fuming over her!" Sirius said.

"Well how am I supposed to stop, Sirius? She likes you, and I mean as more than just a friend, and you know it! But you don't seem to mind though, do you?"

"What do you want me to do, ask Crouch to never put us together for any assignments? Tell Anna to bug off and never speak to me again?"

"Yes!"

"I am not doing that, D! I like her, and I'm not going to ditch my friends just because you don't like them!"

Dominique glared at Sirius. She sighed, shutting her eyes tightly in frustration. As she opened them, she looked squarely at Sirius. "Look, all I want you to do is get your bloody priorities straight. I hate it when you're with Anna and I really wish you'd stop seeing her. And I'd wish you'd remember that I'm your wife, and that you can tell me things. You always put James before me, and make me second string. You weren't like this before, and all of this really hurts!" Dominique said, choking on her last few words as she began to cry.

"I'm sorry," Sirius replied calmly, "I don't want you to get hurt, but I cannot, and will not change things."

"When we got married you vowed that you'd die before you'd allow yourself to hurt me!" Dominique cried.

"It's not my fault you're so brittle!" Sirius said angrily. "It's not my fault that you get jealous easily, and it's not my fault if you failed to see that I always have, and always will put James before anyone else! I've known him since I was a kid, and he's done more for me than everyone in this damn world combined has done for me, so don't you dare tell me that I've got my priorities wrong!"

Sirius looked down at his watch and realizing he was already ten minutes late for work, he cast a final look at Dominique before disapparating out of the kitchen.

Still crying, Dominique headed towards the sink and filled herself a glass of water. She sat down at the kitchen table, staring out the window that overlooked the countryside, as she drank. She remembered the long walks they used to take out there, in those endless fields of wildflowers. They'd pick bouquets and bouquets of flowers and decorate them all over the house…

Dominique pushed her empty glass aside and folding her arms on the table, she rested her head in them, and sobbed quietly.

* * *

"Sirius, are you ok?"

Sirius looked up from his desk, only to see a tall young woman with long blond hair standing over him.

"Er, hey Anna"—

"I said hi to you when you came in, you totally ignored me!"

Sirius shook his head, running a hand through his long black hair. "Sorry, I'm a bit out of it…"

"It's ok," Anna replied with a smile, "hey I needed to get that report from you, on Macnair's whereabouts…"

"Sure, uh…I just need to find it…here, have a seat." Sirius replied, pulling out his wand and conjuring up a chair.

"Thanks"—Anna pulled the chair over to Sirius's desk and took a seat next to him—"So, what are you doing tonight?"

"Definitely not my wife…" Sirius muttered as he opened his briefcase and began shuffling through his papers.

Anna laughed. "I take it you two aren't exactly on the best of terms right now?"

"Not exactly…" Sirius replied as he abandoned his briefcase and began going through his desk drawers.

"What happened?"

"Oh…nothing much…I don't care much to talk about it…I'm sure we'll resolve things…we always do…ah, here it is…" Sirius said, pulling out a roll of parchment from his bottom desk drawer. He extended his hand out to Anna in order to give her the report, only to find her looking at the photos he had plastered on the walls of his cubicle.

"Is that your wedding?" Anna inquired, pointing to a picture of Sirius and Dominique standing together, in each other's arms, laughing. "I love Dominique's dress…"

"Oh yea," Sirius replied, "she was awfully fond of that dress too…she told me on our wedding night that she had been trying it on every night, like a week before the wedding…"

Anna smiled. "That's cute…" she replied, still looking at the photo. "You know, it's hard for me to imagine her like that…all giddy and stuff…"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, as long as I've known her, and it's only been a few months, I know…but she always seems so serious…I dunno, maybe it's just me…I know this may sound silly, but sometimes I get the feeling that she doesn't like me…"

"No, it's not just you…I get that vibe from her too sometimes…" Sirius replied, smiling wryly as he handed Anna the report, who in return laughed.

Anna shook her head as she took the report. "I don't get why you're with her then…I'd never treat my husband like that."

Sirius looked up briefly at Anna, to see that she was smiling slightly. "Perhaps she should take lessons from you then…" he replied in an amused tone as he reached into his desk for another report that he was working on.

Anna laughed. "I should probably get back to work…but listen, it's been ages since we've done anything together…do you want to do something tonight?"

"Oh"—Sirius put down his quill—"I would, but I just remembered that I'm expecting someone over tonight…"

"Oh…well…how about later this week?" Anna pressed him. "Are you free?"

"Erm…I'm not sure, I'll have to look at my schedule…" Sirius glanced at Anna and smiled. "…though why you want to spend more time with me than you already do, is beyond me…we see each other about every day."

"yes, but it's always work…I think it'd be fun to do something outside work, you know? Just go out and have fun…" Anna replied.

Sirius smiled. "Why, you don't think our work is fun? Hunting down dark wizards and getting them thrown into Azkaban…I personally get a real kick out of it…"

Anna laughed. "I meant having fun together! Just you and me…you know?"

"Like a date?"

"If you want to call it that…" Anna replied.

Sirius looked Anna in the eyes. She was leaning forward slightly in her chair, looking at him with slight amusement.

"Why would we call it that?" Sirius asked slowly, his gaze locked in Anna's.

"Well…if the two of us are going to a nice little place for dinner, and you're paying of course," she added with a grin, "and we have a nice time…which we always do when we see each other, then…it'd be a date…"

Sirius nodded, still looking at Anna. "That is a date." He replied slowly.

"Yes, it is," Anna said softly, still leaning in closer to Sirius so they were only a few inches apart, "a very nice date…"

"I'm going to pass…"

"Sorry?"

"I'm married…"

"yes…"

"And I love my wife…"

"but"—

"…and I can't do this to her…I'm sorry, Anna."

Anna nodded as she stood up. She cast another look at Sirius before turning on her heel and leaving.

* * *

Dominique looked above at the waning moon as she flew through a heavily wooded area about 50 miles from her own house. She only hoped he would be well. After all, a waning moon meant Remus was still recovering from his transformation…

Several minutes later, Dominique landed in front of an old brick house. Usually, it was very well kept, with the lawn sparkling clean and all sorts of flowers blossoming around the house. Now, however, the grass stood several inches high, slightly browned by the hot days, and lack of nourishment. Weeds had begun to grow around the tulip beds, and the birdfeeder that hung from one of the trees had long since been empty.

Dominique walked over towards the dirt road, and kneeling down, she picked up several pebbles. She returned to the house and clutching her broom in one hand, and the pebbles in the other, Dominique headed towards the backyard. She looked up, and stared at the top window on the farthest right hand corner of the house. Taking careful aim, Dominique chucked a pebble at the window. She waited several seconds, and when nothing happened, she threw another. Just as she hit her last pebble, the window finally opened, and Remus was staring down at her curiously.

"D"—

"Sorry, I know your mum sleeps early, and I didn't want to wake anyone up by flooing or ringing the bell…" Dominique said quickly.

"Except me, right?" Remus asked, smiling wryly at her. "Come on up, just"—Instantly, Dominique disapparated, and reappeared in Remus's room, smiling at him—"apparate up here…" Remus finished, rolling his eyes. "So what brings you here at this hour? Is Sirius out working still?"

"yea, well, by now he's probably on his way back home…"

"Wait, did something happen between you two?" Remus asked suddenly, a look of concern overtaking his face. "Is everything ok?"

Dominique sighed and shook her head as she plopped onto Remus's bed.

"No, nothing's ok…we had a fight…"

"Over what?"

Dominique frowned, not wanting to mention that the fight had been over him. "I don't know…anything and everything…it doesn't even matter anymore, we fight so much…" Dominique looked up at Remus and wiped her eyes. "Maybe it was a mistake…"

"What? No, no, if you going to say it was a mistake to marry him… D, you love him! And he loves you"—

"No he doesn't"—Dominique said as she began to cry—"he doesn't care about me anymore…he doesn't care about my wants and needs…he never listens to me…"

"Oh D, come on, you know that's not true"—

"But it is," Dominique protested, "I mean, I've told him dozens of times to stop seeing that stupid woman"—

"Anna?"

"Yes! And he won't!" Dominique cried. "they're always so chatty, and they spend so much time together, I'm just waiting for Anna to walk into work one day announcing that she's pregnant"—

"D, don't say things like that, Sirius would never do that to you…he'd never dream of hurting you…"

"Oh please…he doesn't care about that anymore…I told him it hurts, but he doesn't care…he doesn't care if I don't like Anna, or if I don't like cigarettes"—

"He's still smoking then?" Remus asked. Dominique nodded in return. Remus sighed. "It's very difficult to quit…"

"Well he should never have started in the first place!" Dominique snapped.

Remus nodded. "I'll agree with you there…I know it's not one of his best habits…but you can't hate a man over a bad habit"—

"It's not just the smoking though," Dominique replied, "it's everything, how he treats me in general…he's just always preoccupied with a million other things, he acts like I'm just getting in the way or something…"

"D, come on, he doesn't think that of you…you've got to make allowances for him…you know the Potters are in danger", Remus added, "…and he and James are best friends, you know…imagine how much that's weighing down on him…"

"Lily's one of my best friends, Remus!" Dominique exclaimed. "You think I don't care or something"—

"No, of course I don't think that," Remus said quickly. "Listen, I've known them longer than you have. You don't understand how close Sirius and James are. They're like brothers"—

"Yea, so he's told me…" Dominique said dryly.

Remus sighed. "Let me guess, you think Sirius cares more about James than he cares about you"—

"I don't think that, I _know_ that…" Dominique replied, "Sirius said himself that he's always put James before anyone else, and he always will…"

"He didn't mean that, I'm sure…"

"Yes he did…"

"Look D, the one thing you've got to understand about Sirius, is that he likes to put 110 into everything. In his work, in his relationships, everything…He likes to give himself whole heartedly to the cause…he's always been like that…I just think he has a lot of stuff going on, and he's finding it a bit difficult to put in 110 into everything now…just give him time...he needs to sort things out…"

Dominique sighed and glanced at Remus briefly before dropping her head into her hands. "I'm tired of giving him time…" she said. When Remus did not answer, she continued, "I don't understand how you can speak so tolerably about him…"

Remus still made no response, but only smiled half heartedly as he put a hand on Dominique's shoulder.

"He's one of my best friends…"

Dominique looked up at Remus, eyeing him closely as if to decipher his countenance.

"What?" Remus asked suddenly.

"Nothing…" Dominique said quickly, as she looked away from Remus. She shook her head and got up from his bed. "Let's just drop all of this…no point in discussing this…"

"Alright…" Remus said, looking at Dominique curiously. "So…how's everything going with the others? Has James or Lily got any ideas on who the spy might be?"

"What?" Dominique asked quickly.

"Er…you know…the spy who's feeding information to Voldemort…have they got any ideas yet?"

"Oh—no…they haven't…" Dominique lied.

"Oh, ok…"

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two. Finally Dominique knelt down and grabbed her broom. "I'm going to leave…" Dominique said quietly. "I want to talk to Dumbledore…"

"Alright," Remus said, as he got up to open his window. "I'd recommend you fly, instead of apparating…give yourself some time to cool down…"

Dominique nodded as she mounted her broom. "Right…"

"Well, I'll see you then…" Remus said.

Dominique nodded again. "Yea, see you…" And with that, Dominique took off.

* * *

As Sirius apparated into the living room of his house, he felt at once uneasy. Something felt wrong.

"I'm home, D!" he called out, dropping his briefcase onto the coffee table. Half expecting Dominique to call back with something sarcastic like "Really? I thought it was a death eater!", Sirius glanced around the place before proceeding towards the bedroom.

"Dominique!" He called again.

He peered into their bedroom. No one was there. However, he did notice, that her purse, which usually sat at the foot of her side of the bed, was gone. 'Must've gone out shopping again…' he thought to himself as he pulled off his cloak and threw it on the bed. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and dumped it onto the dresser, when suddenly…

Sirius stepped closer and scanned the surface of the dresser. Usually it was quite messy, with an array of Dominique's brushes and combs, and other cosmetic tools whose functions he knew not. Now however, the dresser's surface was practically clean…

With a slight feeling of uneasiness overtaking his stomach, Sirius went to the closet and opened the door. He froze in his place when he saw that Dominique's trunk was missing, as well as her broom…

* * *

Remus sighed as he paced around the living room. Why had Dominique wanted to go see Dumbledore? Hadn't his words been enough comfort to her, or at least enough to calm her down for the moment? She wouldn't do anything rash…but then again, she was married to Sirius…he was bound to have rubbed off on her…

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar, low rumbling noise, that came from outside. The noise grew louder and louder, and Remus headed towards the window to peer outside…

Out of nowhere, a large motorcycle materialized in front of him, and slowly came to a stop on the Lupins' front lawn, blinding Remus with its headlights. The rider pulled his wand out, and tapping the bike twice, the motorcycle fell silent, and its lights went out.

Remus rushed to the door, but before he could so much as touch the knob, the door flew open.

"Sirius"—

"Where is she??" He demanded, letting himself into the house.

"How the hell did you"—

Sirius held up a small knife. "You really didn't believe me when I told you these babies can open any lock, did you Moony?" he asked as he replaced the knife in his pocket.

"Well, glad to know the contrary," Remus replied, "I feel safer already"—

"Look, where is she?" Sirius asked again, looking squarely at Remus.

"I'm assuming you're talking about Dominique?"

"Yea…where is she? Are you hiding her here?" Sirius asked as he turned away and headed out of the living room and into the kitchen.

"I'm not hiding her anywhere, Sirius…" Remus said with a note of irritability in his voice as he followed Sirius into the dining room. "She did come here though, but she left…"

Sirius turned suddenly to face Remus. "Where'd she go?" he demanded.

"Why? What are you going to do?"

"I just want to bring her home"—

"I'm sure she'll come home, she probably just needed a few hours to cool off…"

"Her trunk was missing, so was some of her stuff…"

Remus frowned. "She didn't have anything with her when she came…just her broom and her purse…but then again," he noted, "I suppose she might've put a reduction charm on her stuff…"

"Well, where'd she go??" Sirius asked again, more loudly.

Remus sighed. "Listen, I think first you need to calm down"—

Sirius took a step towards Remus, the latter whom looked slightly disconcerted, though he didn't back away. "No, you listen. She's my wife, and I will not have her scampering about Britain just because she's mad at me. Just tell me where she is, so I can take her home and settle things with her…"

"Sirius you can't settle things when you're mad…you guys will just keep fighting, and keep going in the same circles. You need to calm down"—

"Well, this is as calm as I plan on getting, so tell me where the hell she is!!" Sirius bellowed.

"So you can hurt her some more?" Remus asked angrily. "Do you even care about her anymore? She came crying here, because you ignore her, and you focus all your attention on James, or work, or other women…and I made excuses for you, feeding her crap like 'oh, Sirius is just stressed out and busy…he still loves you though…' just to calm her down! Did it work? I doubt it, but you know what, I don't think I care that much, because you aren't even making the effort to fix things with her…"

Sirius stared at Remus as the latter glared at him. "I put my foot down with Anna today, and before I left work, I asked Crouch if he could stop assigning us together..." he said in a more calmed voice.

Remus did not take his eyes off Sirius, but his expression softened. "She went to Dumbledore." He said simply.

Sirius nodded but as something seemed to have suddenly dawned upon him, he stomped his foot on the ground and swore.

"What?" Remus asked.

"I'm supposed to see Dumbledore tonight…ah shit…I better go…" Sirius said as he headed towards the door. He looked over his shoulder once to so say goodbye to Remus. The latter only nodded in return. "Thanks for stopping by…" he said in a tone that Sirius found to be a mix of sarcasm and disappointment. Shrugging off the feeling of uneasiness, Sirius waved and shut the door behind him.

* * *

"Dumbledore!" Sirius shouted, as he hopped of his motorbike half an hour later. He jogged across the front lawn to the porch, where the headmaster stood. "So sorry," Sirius panted as he pulled out his keys, "I hope you weren't waiting long…I was just…well"—

"Looking for something?" the headmaster asked.

"Er"—

"Or someone perhaps?"

"Yes, I was"—

"All in good time, but it's very urgent that we discuss the situation with the Potters…"

"Right." Sirius replied as he opened the front door, and showed Dumbledore into the living room.

"Well, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked as he brought in a cup of tea for Dumbledore and took a seat across from him.

"Well, as Mr. Potter has probably told you by now, he and his family must go into hiding soon, in the next few days if we can manage. I explained to him that the best way to go about in this is using the fidelius charm. Are you familiar with it?" Dumbledore asked.

Sirius nodded.

"Well, as you know, a secret keeper is involved with this charm. I had offered myself for the task, but James insisted on using you."

"And I'm completely up for it." Sirius replied, "I'd die before betraying James."

Dumbledore nodded. "We'll perform the charm tomorrow then. Tomorrow evening, we'll meet at Godric's Hollow. That will be their hiding place. Few people as possible should know about this."

Sirius nodded. "Will do."

"Now, another matter that we must discuss…"

Sirius looked down at his hands, feeling very uneasy now.

"Dominique came to see me today…quite unexpectedly. We had a long talk…she had quite a bit on her mind"—

"Professor Dumbledore, sir," Sirius interrupted, "if you could just tell her to come back home…"

Dumbledore shook his head as he put his teacup and saucer down. He sighed and looked straight at Sirius. "Dominique wishes a divorce."


	37. Chapter 38: Pumpkin Juice

A/N: Ok, first off, I want to say I am so so so sorry it took me forever to update…Being on winter break really slows down the typing…well, anytime I'm at home visiting family, I get slowed down…lol anyway, I also want to thank all of you who have stuck around to read thus far. So..yea, thank you, it really means a lot to me! ) what else, what else..oh yea, I think this chapter is a wee bit shorter than my usuals (it was longer at first, but I cut out this one scene that I thought was pretty random and didn't contribute to the plot at all…), but hopefully you'll still like it, though I also just realized its kinda fast paced..lol oh well. Hopefully, I'll be able to update soon. Thanks again for reading!

Chapter 38: Pumpkin Juice

Sirius stared blankly at Dumbledore for a moment.

"A…a divorce?" he stammered. "Professor Dumbledore, you can't be serious…"

Dumbledore sighed and looked down at his still full teacup. "On the contrary, Mr. Black, I'm afraid I am…You see, these past few months Dominique has become quite frustrated with the state of the marriage"—

"But Professor"—

Dumbledore gently held up his hand to interrupt Sirius. "You must allow me to speak, Sirius, and I asked that you listen."

Sirius nodded and Dumbledore continued.

"As you undoubtedly learned in the last few years whilst you got to know my niece, just as I had when I first met her, Dominique is the kind of woman who needs attention. She was deprived of it during the first half of her life. Her parents didn't care for her. She had no real friends, except a boyfriend that used her. She didn't get her first taste of affection until she came to Hogwarts. I cared for her. Her friends cared for her. And most importantly, you cared for her. I think I can safely say that she never experienced the kind of attentiveness you've shown her, and frankly, it grew on her. She became comfortable with your treatment, and began expecting nothing less than affection and tenderness from you."

Sirius only stared at him. What did Dumbledore mean he _was_ this and _was _that…he _still_ was all that…

"Times have become hard," Dumbledore continued, "and it has become increasingly difficult for you to operate at the high standards that Dominique has put you to, what with the war going on, your work, and all the expectations others put you to"—

"Professor"—Sirius looked at Dumbledore warily, knowing the headmaster was quite tired and not in the mood for interruptions—"I'm sorry. I just need to say this. I've got a good feeling I know what Dominique's told you, and I'll be the first to admit that there was probably truth in everything she said. But believe me, sir. I'm willing to fix things. I already have begun to. I just need Dominique to give this marriage another chance…she has to. I don't want a divorce in the midst of a war. Can you please just tell her to come home and give me a chance? I promise to rectify things…if I don't, she's welcome to leave, and welcome to all my possessions. Just…please tell her that."

Dumbledore stood up and nodded to Sirius as he headed towards the door. "Make sure to go to the Potters' tomorrow. I'll pass your message along to Dominique." And with that, Dumbledore opened the front door and left.

The following morning, Sirius couldn't help but feel slightly out of place as he stood in the kitchen, trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast—he had become quite accustomed to walking into the kitchen with his meal already prepared for him, by Dominique of course. 'I'm going to look for a house elf if she doesn't come back…' Sirius thought gloomily to himself as he settled on a bowl of cereal and milk, as that was the only thing he knew how to make…

As Sirius dumped his empty cereal bowl into the sink, he eyed the box of cigarettes that lay temptingly on the counter. He sighed as he grabbed the box and headed to his bedroom to find the lighter…

Hours later, Sirius stumbled out of his room as he buttoned up his shirt. It was time to go see the Potters. He grabbed his wand from the kitchen counter and shoved it in his pocket. As he turned to leave, he wondered if he should leave a note for Dominique, just in case she came while he was gone. Deciding it would be best if he did so, Sirius headed to his room and went to his desk to find some parchment.

"D"—he wrote hurriedly—"went to the Potters, be back shortly. Sirius."

Sirius picked up the parchment and placed it on the bed, where she wouldn't miss it. As he turned around to leave, he almost jumped.

"Hey…" she said softly. She was just standing there, one hand clutching to her purse and broom, the other around the handle of her trunk.

Sirius stared at her, suddenly not knowing what to say.

"Hey…" he finally replied.

"I'm sorry…" she said suddenly, taking Sirius by surprise. "I just…I was upset…and well, Dumbledore told me what you said…" her voice trailed off. She looked at Sirius anxiously, wanting for him to say something…

"Are you staying?" Sirius asked.

"Did you mean what you said?" she asked in reply.

Sirius nodded. "I did. So will you stay? And we'll work on…well, us…"

Dominique nodded. "I want this marriage to work."

"Same here."

"You were writing a note to me?" Dominique asked as she put her things down and walked over to the bed. "Were you going somewhere?" She picked up the parchment and read it. "Oh…" she said as she dumped the parchment back onto the bed.

"Yea…" Sirius said awkwardly. "Listen, I should actually be there by now…see, we're going to perform the fidelius charm…I'm going to be the secret keeper."

"So they're really going into hiding then?" Dominique asked.

"Yea…so…I'm just going to head on out…I'll be back as soon as I'm done, and I promise, we'll have a nice, long talk about it…and well, everything…sound good?" Sirius asked, looking at Dominique warily.

"Sure," she replied. "I'll just unpack in the meantime…"

Sirius nodded and headed towards the door. "I'll be back as soon as we're done!" he said again as he headed out the door.

* * *

As Sirius landed in front of the Potters' home in Godric's Hollow, his mind wondered to the task that lay in front of him. He would be protecting the Potters by keeping their secret…in his soul. In time, Sirius knew, Voldemort would find out they were in hiding, and no doubt he would figure out that they were using the fidelius charm. Would they seek him out? Did Voldemort know that he, Sirius, was James's best friend? Well, if he didn't know, surely the spy in the order would have told him…

'I'm not afraid of dying…' Sirius thought defensively to himself as he knocked on the door. 'But if they're going to come looking for me too…and they kill me…how will the charm be removed once the Potters get out of danger? The secret keeper has to be there to break the charm…'

"Sirius…"

Sirius looked up and found James standing at the front door.

"Come on in…" he said quietly, showing Sirius inside. Once Sirius entered the living room, he nodded at Lily, who sat on the couch with Harry. They all seemed to be forcing smiles at each other.

"Thanks so much for doing this, mate…" James said as he took a seat across from Sirius.

"Are you sure you want to though?" Lily cut in. She looked at Sirius anxiously now. "I mean…Voldemort is going to find out sooner or later that we're hiding…I'm sure he'll figure out we're using the fidelius charm…and if he does…well, he'll know you're our secret keeper…your our best friend…they'll come for you…"

Sirius shook his head. "So be it…they won't get it out of me…"

"They'll kill you…" Lily said in an almost whisper. Her eyes were rimmed with tears. Suddenly she found herself leaning forward and hugging Sirius, with Harry (who was still in Lily's lap) squashed between them.

"Lily"—

"I'm sorry…" Lily said as she pulled away from Sirius. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "I hated you when we were younger…at school…I'm sorry I ever thought badly of you…"

"Lily, calm yourself…" James cut in, as he rushed to his wife's side to comfort her. "That was a long time ago…you hated me too, remember?"

"I know, I know…" Lily said, "I don't know why I'm suddenly remembering our school days…a few years ago, I never would've dreamed that I'd be married to you, James…or be putting my life in your hands, Sirius…but now…I'm so thankful that I have both of you…"

"Ah, Lily…" James said as he ran a hand through her hair, "I know how it is…our school days…man, how I wish we could go back to those days sometimes…."

"Carefree and innocent…" Sirius said wistfully, "not a worry in the world…"

At this, Lily let out something between a sob and a cry. "You guys were never innocent…" she said with a weak smile. James and Sirius laughed.

"And so we weren't…" James replied as he took baby Harry out of Lily's arms and began to cradle him. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up again. "Well…I suppose we should do it then?"

Lily turned to Sirius. "Thank you so much for doing this, Sirius…I don't know what we'd do"—

"Before you start praising me to the sky and dub be a knight…I think I have an alternate plan…that might just guarantee your safety…"

"What is it?" James asked.

"Get a different secret keeper…" Sirius replied. "I mean, I'm more than willing to do it…but…you two are worried about my safety…and I'm worried about yours…I feel like me being secret keeper isn't completely fool proof…"

"Who would we get?" James and Lily asked together, causing Harry to giggle.

"Someone nobody would ever suspect…" Sirius replied as he headed towards the fireplace.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lily asked as she paced around the living room a few minutes later.

"Trust me….no one would suspect Peter…Voldemort would never think that you guys would use him…him and all his followers will probably go straight for me…it's the perfect bluff. And think about how safe you guys will be…nobody will even know…Everyone who knows you've got a secret keeper will still think it's me…it's perfect…" Sirius said.

James nodded and turned to Lily. "He's got a point….no one would think to go to Peter…I mean, he's a great friend and all…but…well, look at him…when you're putting your life in someone's hands, you usually go with someone reliable and strong, like Sirius…Peter's an underdog…no one will think to go to him…"

Lily sighed and nodded. Suddenly, she realized…

"I met Remus the other day…at Diagon Alley…he asked…I told him Sirius was our secret keeper…so…should we not tell him about the change, I'm assuming?" she asked.

Sirius shook his head. "Best that he doesn't know…" James nodded in agreement.

Just then, smoke, ashes and a blaze of fire erupted from the fireplace, and Peter Pettigrew arrived.

"So you're sure you're willing to do this, Wormtail?" James asked as he and Lily helped their friend out of the fireplace.

Peter nodded and looked from James to Lily, to Sirius, and finally Harry. "I'm honoured." He replied.

* * *

An hour later, Sirius arrived at his own house. He glanced around the place as he pulled his cloak off and hung it up. He was looking for a sign of Dominique. Suddenly he caught it when he took a deep breath. The air smelled of tantalizing spices. He followed the aroma to the kitchen, where he found Dominique standing over several pots, pans, and cauldrons at the stove. Upon hearing Sirius's entrance, Dominique looked up and smiled.

"Hey…thought I'd get started on dinner…" she said as she turned back to her cooking.

"Smells great…" Sirius replied.

"So…are the Potters hidden now?"

"Yup…"

"And you're keeping them?"

"Yup…" Sirius replied automatically. But before he could correct himself, Sirius stopped to think. 'the only reason they were keen on using Peter was so nobody would know that I'm the bluff…'

"Do you need any help?" Sirius asked, changing the subject.

"No, it's alright…it just needs to sit and cook on its own…" Dominique said as she wiped her hands on her apron. As she reached backwards to untie it, she found Sirius standing behind her, assisting her in the task.

"Thank you…" she said quietly as he removed her apron.

Dominique watched as he folded it and placed it on the kitchen counter. Sirius turned around just in time to see Dominique quickly shift her gaze towards the floor, as she tried to hide her smile.

At seeing this, Sirius couldn't help but smile as well, though he wasn't quite sure why he was smiling. "What?" he asked amusedly.

Dominique's smiled only broadened as she shook her head. "Well…it's been such a long time since we've gotten along...I have to admit, it feels a bit weird…"

At this statement, Sirius's grin only broadened.

"Well, now that you've mentioned it…" Sirius said as he ran a hand through his long hair, "I suppose it does seem a bit weird"—

"Oh!" Dominique's face lit up suddenly, and she bolted out of the kitchen.

"Er…D?" Sirius asked uncertainly as he followed her out, and into the bedroom. There he found Dominique rummaging through the closet. At long last, she pulled out a large shopping bag, from which an even larger, neatly wrapped package peaked out of.

"Remember the day we fought…I had just come back from shopping…I said I bought you"—

"a toy?" Sirius finished for her. "yes, I remember…"

"Well…here…" she said. And with a small smile she extended the bag out to Sirius. He took it, and with a bit of effort, pulled the package out of the bag. He quickly untied the strings and tore off the paper. He opened the box and pulled out the gift.

"Er…" he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It looked sort of like a tiny chair, only without the legs….

"You like?" she asked.

"Oh…yea! It's great!" Sirius said, forcing himself to sound enthusiastic. "Um…what is it?"

"It's a baby seat…to attach to your motorbike…"

"Oh!" Sirius said, with a note of comprehension. But just as quickly, his look of understanding melted away and was replaced by confusion. "But…why would I need one? We don't have any kids…we can't, really…the healers said so…and you don't want to…" Sirius's voice trailed off. He stared at Dominique wide eyed. "You want to…?"

Dominique nodded and smiled excitedly. "If you still want to…"

Sirius dropped the baby seat and pulled Dominique in for a hug, lifting her a few inches off the ground. "Course I want to!" he exclaimed happily. He suddenly put her down and looked her squarely in the eyes. "Uh…we're talking about the same thing, right? Adoption?" he asked quickly.

Dominique laughed and nodded in return. Sirius sighed. "Good."

"Yea…I don't know what came over me…I just…I don't know…when I was out shopping, I was looking at shoes…and the baby department was right next to it…and I just sort of wandered in there…next thing I knew…I was making mental notes of which outfits I'd buy if I had a child…" Dominique shook her had and laughed softly. "I had forgotten how much I wanted to have a family…and well…I'm glad I've come to my senses…"

Sirius smiled and put an arm around Dominique. "Glad you have too—er…not that you were ever out of them…" he said quickly. Dominique laughed again.

"Right…well, listen…before we get too into this whole adoption thing…I just think we should talk a bit…about why we've been fighting a lot…I mean, we'd need to show adoption agencies that we have a stable home anyway…might as well start now…"

Sirius nodded in agreement. "I agree. And not just for the sake of getting a kid, but also for our sanity's sake…I don't want to have to go through this again…what's been happening these last few months…"

"Right…so…" Dominique started, feeling awkward all of a sudden. "well…alright, I don't think I want to start…because then I'll start pointing out everything you've done and make it out to be all your fault, and I'm sure I've had a part in this too…so…maybe you talk first?"

Sirius pursed his lips together and nodded. "Well, let me tell you first…some of our problems don't exist anymore…"

"Such as…"

"Anna…"

"Why, what happened to her?" Dominique asked.

"Well…the day you left…when I was at work…Anna approached me…woah, calm down, tiger…" Sirius said quickly when he saw Dominique sit up straighter, with her jaw clenched tightly, looking like she was ready to pounce. "Nothing happened. She approached me…we talked…she asked me out"—

"She what??" Dominique asked suddenly.

"I turned her down though, D!" Sirius said quickly. "Really…soon as I realized what I had gotten myself into with her, by being so open and friendly with her…I don't know…everything sort of fell into place with me…and well, I put my foot down and told her no. I told her that I loved you. And she left…"

"Really?" Dominique asked. She sounded half flattered, half anxious.

Sirius nodded. "And before I left work, I talked to Crouch…she and I won't be working together anymore…well, Crouch said he was thinking of moving her to another department anyway…"

"I can't believe you did that…" Dominique said, smiling weakly at Sirius.

"Yea…then I come home and find that you're gone…" he said with a small note of bitterness.

Dominique, slightly taken aback, blushed. "I'm sorry…but we had such a horrible fight before you left"—

"Don't worry about it…I was just teasing you…" Sirius said quickly. "Anyway, I deserved to get shaken up like that. Gave me a right scare…I realized I've become a bit of an ass…but listen, D…and I'm not trying to make excuses for my behavior…but you need to be understanding…just because I'm putting more time into work, or seeing to the Potters, doesn't mean I care less about you…"

"I know…I realize that now…" Dominique answered.

"And…" Sirius continued, "I don't care if I start working with veelas…you can't go and get jealous…you have to trust me…I would never go behind your back. I've never even been tempted…so long as we both do our share of the marital duties," he added, grinning mischievously, "We shouldn't have to worry about that sort of stuff. We're married and we love each other. We should trust each other."

Dominique nodded and smiled. Suddenly she looked up as sudden remembrance of something dawned on her. "Dinner…" she said, quickly heading to the kitchen.

"Just turn the stove off…" Sirius said, following her out. "I'm not really hungry…we can eat later…"

"You're not hungry?" Dominique asked with surprise as she flicked her wand at the stove to put out the fires that heated the pots. "That's a first…"

Sirius grinned his mischievous smile again. "Well, it's like you once said, I need to get my priorities straight…"

"Meaning?" Dominique asked as she dipped spooned out a sample of sauce and dipped her finger in it…

"Well, I've got other needs to satisfy besides hunger…" he said as he stepped closer to Dominique.

"Ah…well…" Dominique blushed slightly. "We'll have to take care of that now, won't we? She said as she wiped her hands with a paper towel.

"Oh yes, immediately, I might add…" Sirius said as he leaned closer to her and kissed the side of her neck.

"Right then…" Dominique replied. She headed towards the trash can to throw away her dirty towel, but stopped as she looked into the receptacle. "Er…Sirius…"

"Yea?"

"Your cigs…and lighter…they're in the trash…"

"And your point is?"

Dominique shifted her gaze to Sirius and looked at him curiously. "Did you"—

"Yea, I decided to quit…this morning, actually."

"Why?"

Sirius shrugged. "Smoking kills…haven't you heard?" he asked quite casually.

"I could've told you that…" Dominique replied.

Sirius laughed. "And so you have...well anyway, it wouldn't be very exemplary of me to smoke in front of the kids…"

"So now we're adopting multiple kids?" Dominique asked amusedly.

"Why not? Let's try to get twins…a boy and a girl…" Sirius suggested.

"Beggars can't be choosers, you know…" Dominique said.

"We're not beggars! We're applicants!" Sirius said indignantly. "Oh well…we'll talk about that all in the morning…right now, we've got some catching up to do…"

"Right you are…"

"Now, as I understand it," Sirius said as he and Dominique headed out of the kitchen, "you've been a very naughty girl…giving me hell and running off like that…I'm afraid I'm going to have to teach you a lesson…"

* * *

James paced steadily around his bedroom, staring intently at the floor. He was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a small laugh from the corner of the room. Harry was standing up in his crib, gripping tightly to the bars. He was grinning at his father.

"Think I look funny walking around like that?" James asked, breaking into a grin identical to his son's as he picked him up. "Or do you think I'm just funny looking?" he asked, making a face at his son, who laughed in return. "Well, just you wait. You're going to grow up looking exactly like me. So you'll be just as funny looking as your old man…oh great…" James grumbled at as he put Harry back in his crib. "old man…I'm sounding like my dad…I'm not even old!" Suddenly, James heard a creaking noise from the bathroom. He turned around and spotted Lily coming out of it, holding a small stick that was now glowing blue from one tip. She looked tense.

"Well?" he asked suddenly, running up to her and taking her hands.

Lily sighed and smiled. "I'm pregnant…We're having another baby…"

James grinned and threw his arms around his wife.

* * *

A few evenings later, Dominique sighed as Sirius pulled away from her and fell next to her in bed. "We should skive off work more often…" she breathed.

Sirius closed his eyes and smiled with satisfaction. "yea…"

"Think Crouch will notice we left?" Dominique asked.

"Doubt it…Moody had a big raid, I'm pretty sure Crouch wanted to be there…he's hoping to fill up some more cells in Azkaban…" Sirius replied.

"I can't wait til this war is over…"

"Yea…things at work are bound to calm down…"

"Exactly…and James and Lily will be able to come back to work…I really miss them…"

Sirius sighed. He did too. It had been almost a week since he had seen them, when they first performed the fidelius charm. Come to think of it…

"I even miss Peter…" Dominique continued. "Haven't seen him in a bit either…"

"Nor I…" Sirius muttered. He sat up quickly in bed.

Dominique also sat up. "You alright?" she asked.

"Yea…" Sirius mumbled as he pulled himself out of bed.

"Are you sure?" Dominique asked, looking at Sirius half curiously, half frightened.

"Yea…" Sirius said again as he hastily grabbed his clothes from the floor and got dressed.

"Where are you going?"

"Peter's…I…I haven't seen him…I need to see him…"

"Why?" Fear seemed to overtake Dominique's voice. "Sirius, what's going on"—

Sirius disapparated out of sight.

Dominique stared at the place where Sirius stood seconds before. Slowly, and a bit shakily, Dominique pulled herself out of bed and began to get dressed as well.

* * *

"Well, I finally got Harry to sleep…" Lily said as she came down the stairs. She stopped at the foot of the staircase when she looked into the living room. It was dimly lit with a few small candles, and James was sitting on the sofa, with two glasses of wine at the coffee table. "What's all this?" she asked with a smile as she sat down. "Oh James," she said, pointing to the drinks, "you know I can't drink now, with the baby coming"—

"It's pumpkin juice…" James laughed. "I just put them in wine glasses to make it look more romantic…"

Lily laughed at this and took a glass. "Happy Halloween…" she said as she raised her glass.

"Back at you…" James replied with a grin as he gently tapped his glass against hers.

Just as they finished off their pumpkin juice, and James had begun to tell Lily yet another story about his maraudering days at Hogwarts, a sudden draft caused them to immediately turn their gaze to where the gust of cold air had come from; the back door, which had creaked open.


	38. Chapter 39: Their Last Mile

a/n: In case you notice a small discrepancy as you read, I thought I'd say that I know October has 31 days…and it might seem like Kierra needs a calendar, or perhaps a watch, but she's good. Don't worry. I was just trying to keep in mind the time changes between the states and Britain…anywhos, thought I'd just say that..oh yea, also, this isn't the last chapter..don't worry, I'll give u a heads up when I'm writing the final chapter (it'll be a while..lol) I'm thinking it won't go past chapter 50 though…just a rough guess  oh yea one more thing, (lol sorry), I just wanted to say thanks to EVERYONE who's read thus far, and I also wanted to apologize to those reading on fanfiction net that I can't personally reply to the reviews..but I do read all of them and really really appreciate each and every one, so thanks, specially all you consistent reviewers out there, you (and I) know who you are! Yay! I've said all I needed to say lol

Chapter 39: Their Last Mile

James stood up and slowly made his way towards the back door. Halfway there—

"James…" Lily whispered. "James"—

James put up a hand to silence Lily, and with his other hand he drew out his wand. "Take Harry and run…" he whispered. No, no…they had got it wrong. Remus was too calm…he was too reserved…But Peter was too greedy…Peter was…weak—

"James—NO!!"

The door swung open and a burst of red light erupted from the entrance, sending James and Lily hurtling backwards.

"GO!!" James moaned he felt around the floor for his glasses. "Go Lily"—

He could hear Lily several feet behind him, moaning in pain as she struggled to get up. He could hear footsteps approaching…No…they weren't going down without a fight.

"Rigda Sampra!!" James shouted while he was still down, staring blindly ahead of him. He saw a dark blur of a man hurtle backwards and hit the floor.

At last he had found his glasses. "TAKE HARRY AND RUN!!" James shouted as he got up. He looked over his shoulder briefly, only to see Lily hurrying up the stairs to Harry's nursery.

"Don't be a fool, boy." The voice sneered.

James shifted his attention to his intruder. He was cloaked and black, and his hood shadowed his face. All he could see were a great pair of red eyes.

"I am not a boy…" James said coldly, hoping to start a little argument in order to buy time for Lily and Harry to escape. "I am a man."

His intruder only laughed his vicious laugh. It seemed to penetrate the entire house.

"You are nothing but a weak, pathetic boy, Potter. Now if you wish to be a man, I'll allow you to fight like one"—

"I AM a man!" James shouted. "Unlike you, you disgusting coward—AAAH!!" James fell backwards and began to writhe in pain as his attacker muttered "crucio".

"Lord Voldemort is NOT a coward." Voldemort spat as he lowered his wand and lifted the curse off James.

"Oh yes, Voldemort is a coward." James breathed.

"You're foolish too, Potter. You dare to speak my name. Say goodbye, little boy…your mudblood wife will be joining you soon." and with that, Voldemort raised his wand….

Lily slammed the door hard as she reached Harry's nursery. She quickly pulled out her wand and locked it. Peter. How did they not see it…She turned around to face a cranky, awake and crying Harry. "I'm sorry honey…" Lily whispered through her tears as she picked Harry up. She headed towards the small fireplace that had been installed in Harry's room for the purpose of a quick getaway. She reached for a fistful of floo powder—

"Aveda Kedavra!!" Lily heard a man shriek from downstairs. Lily gasped and dropped her floo powder as she heard her husband scream—it was cut short though from the speed at which his life was taken—and was followed by a heavy thud. James Potter had fallen.

"James…" Lily whimpered. Instinctively she made for the door…No…no…this couldn't be happening…He wasn't dead…She needed him…Harry needed him…their next baby needed him…As she reached for the doorknob, she jumped back when she heard the footsteps from the stairs. He was going to get them. He'd kill Harry…

Lily quickly backed away from the door, and ran straight to the fireplace. She grabbed another handful of floo powder—

The door flew open and a force so great exploded into the room, causing Lily to fall backwards, her head hitting the bricks of the fireplace. She hugged Harry tightly as she fell, shutting her eyes from the debris.

"No…" Lily whimpered as Voldemort drew nearer to her. She quickly got up and took a few steps forward. She took a deep breath. She felt blood trickling down the back of her skull…

"At last…" Voldemort whispered. He towered over Lily.

"Please…don't"—

"Out of my way, girl"—

"Please!" Lily cried. She shook with fear. Not of Voldemort. But for Harry. "Please don't kill Harry!" she begged. "Take me…kill me! Just don't kill Harry"—

Voldemort had pointed his wand at Lily's heart. "Step away." He said quietly. "It's him that I want"—

"No!"

"Aveda Kedavra!"

The room filled with the green light emitted from Lord Voldemort's wand. There was a shrill scream, and Lily Potter fell to the ground.

Hours earlier, Kierra sat at her desk in her cozy little flat in Salem. She looked down thoughtfully at the parchment that rested in front of her. Twirling her quill between her fingers, Kierra reread her letter to Lily…

As she sealed her letter and went across the room to give the letter to her owl, Kierra began to wonder if it had been appropriate that she mentioned Remus. Lily wouldn't tell Remus anything, would she? James might… But why should she, Kierra even care? She was over him anyway. She was just asking how he was….what was the big deal if she was wondering about him…as a friend? Nothing wrong with that…

As Kierra went back to her desk and pulled out homework papers to grade, she thought about Dominique and Sirius, and what had become of them. They had always been crazy for each other since day one. How could their marriage have gone suddenly topsy turvy? And how were the Potters managing? She rarely heard from them, and got most of her news from Alice Longbottom, who had also gone into hiding, but then came out. The crazed psycho with a wand, as Kierra liked to call Voldemort (no one but James and Sirius found this name to be funny…) had been after the Longbottoms and the Potters for some time, but then had suddenly decided to focus his attention on the Potters. Kierra hadn't known the details, but she knew Voldemort wanted baby Harry dead…

Kierra sighed and got up, abandoning her papers. She couldn't concentrate. Not when all of her friends were in some kind of danger or distress. Things were not looking good in England at all. And she had left it all…all for a job. She abandoned her family and friends. Her work. She was in the order, and she abandoned that. She offered to remain a part of it, but Dumbledore had no need for witches in the States. Voldemort's name was only passively known of in the States, amongst the wizarding world. To Americans, he was just a nutty power hungry British wizard out for world domination. He was off his rocker and the ministry was bound to catch up to him; that was what they thought of him. He was known as a bad guy, but not many people knew much about him, let alone feared him. Kierra grabbed her cloak and headed out the door, deciding to hit the supermarket to buy candy for tomorrow's trick-or-treaters. She hoped the terrible war would end soon.

Little did she know that it would end sooner than she dared to hope, but to a much greater cost than she could have ever fathomed.

Sirius landed his motorbike in front of Peter Pettigrew's house. He hopped off and ran to the door. He rang the bell nervously.

"Wormtail, you in there??" Sirius called when no one answered. He quickly searched his pockets and pulled out a knife. He stuck it in the keyhole of Peter's door and gave it a few twists and turns. Finally, Sirius heard a click. He withdrew his knife and replaced it in his pockets. He opened the door…and was greeted by darkness.

"Wormtail?" Sirius started again as he let himself into the house. "Lumos…"

Expecting to find Peter's living room torn to shreds with furniture thrown askew, Sirius stopped short when he saw that it was untouched by any sort of struggle. It was perfectly clean and quiet…too so for Peter's taste.

Suddenly a very unsettling thought filled Sirius's mind. What if…no…Peter couldn't have…Remus was the spy…Remus was cleverer…more secretive…more…loyal.

Sirius felt very sick now as he clutched his stomach. How did they not see this? Peter was weak, and always stuck with stronger people. Why else was he friends with them? As Sirius began to pace around the living room, panic filled him. Why didn't he stick to being secret keeper? He had no idea where the Potters were hidden…somewhere in Godric's Hollow was all he knew…

Sirius bolted out the door and started his motorbike. He knew where the village was. He'd just fly over it and look for signs of Peter Pettigrew, or death eaters, or Voldemort himself.

'Faster!!' Sirius urged the bike twenty minutes later. He was almost there now…He had no idea what to expect…he just hoped he had made it on time…

As he finally reached Godric's Hollow, Sirius dipped to a lower altitude, in order to get a better view of the houses. Which one was theirs? A small white one with a red volkswagon parked in front of it? No, they didn't have a car, to Sirius's knowledge. The brown house next door? Perhaps the larger brick house further down the street…Sirius glanced around frantically. Then he saw it. Further down, about a mile away, he saw it. He urged his bike forward, and silently praying that he was hallucinating, Sirius squinted in the distance. He wasn't seeing things. There it was, at the borderline of Godric's Hollow and Spinners End, were the remains of a house.

Sirius jumped off his motorbike when he landed. He stared wild eyed at the sight. He was too late…it was all over…Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when he heard a howl like cry. Sirius turned around quickly, pointing his wand in the direction that he heard the noise.

"Hagrid!"

The large giant of a man looked away from the bundle he was holding, to look down at the new arrival.

"Sirius! He dun it!" Hagrid sobbed. "You-know-who! He dun it! Killed poor Lily and James! Tried killin little 'ol Harry, ended up destroying himself"—

"Harry??" Sirius asked quickly, now rushing over to see what bundle Hagrid carried.

He was awake, but looked very tired. He blinked sleepily at his godfather, completely oblivious to the night's events. He looked as if nothing happened. Except—

"Hagrid…" Sirius started, pointing to Harry's forehead. There was an odd, lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead.

Hagrid only shrugged. "You-know-who must've given it to him, when he tried to kill Harry."

Sirius only nodded dully in return.

"Sorry, Sirius, but I should get goin"—

"Give Harry to me"—

Hagrid shook his head sadly. "Got to take him to his aunt's house"—

"But I'm his godfather!" Sirius retorted. "I'm supposed to take care of him"—

"I know that, Sirius. But Dumbledore's orders…something to do with a safety precaution for Harry…"

Sirius sunk his head in defeat. "Fine." He replied. "hey, take my motorbike. She lives all the way in Surrey."

"Thank, Black. I'll get it back to you tomorrow then."

"No, don't worry about it. I won't be needing it anymore."

Hagrid looked at Sirius curiously for a moment, then nodded. "Thanks."

Sirius watched as Hagrid made his way to the motorbike, and after carefully securing baby Harry to it, he took off.

Sirius turned around once more to face the rubble. Without thinking, he knelt down and began digging furiously. Throwing bricks out of the way, broken glass, remnants of furniture…he'd sit here all night if he had to…after several minutes, his hand finally landed on something soft…and fleshy. Sirius took a deep breath as he removed the remaining debris…and his heart seemed to stop at the sight. His best friend…his brother, lay in front of him as a defeated soldier. He breathed heavily as he stared into his friend's open eyes. The shock was still in them. Memories flashed before Sirius. He was on his first train ride to Hogwarts, and a friendly boy with black hair and a mischievous grin sat in his train compartment, babbling away about everything from Quidditch to chocolate frogs, to dungbombs…The same young boy ran happily to Sirius and joined him at the Gryffindor table, shouting "I knew I'd be a Gryffindor!!"…Slightly taller, the boy was now looking at him dreamily, muttering something about red hair and green eyes….even older now, the boy waved around a golden snitch, showing off his reflexes to his friends…the same boy, now a man, put his arm around a teenage Sirius, welcoming him to the Potter family….the man was lounging about in Sirius's flat, laughing heartily at a joke…he was looking proudly at Sirius, holding out his new born baby…Sirius turned away, but put his hand to James's face as he closed his eyes.

Dominique landed hard on the floor of Peter Pettigrew's fireplace. "Lumos…" she muttered, as she was greeted by total darkness. She stepped out of the fireplace and made her way out of the living room. "Peter?" she asked timidly. There was something eerie about this…

"Peter??" She asked more loudly. No answer. She looked at her watch. It was now in the early hours of November 1st.

After searching Peter's small house, Dominique headed back to the fireplace and grabbed another fistful of floo powder. What was this about? Sirius disappears to see Peter, and Peter isn't home. Were they rounding up to go somewhere? Oh, why couldn't Sirius explain to her why he was going to Peter's? It'd only take him a thirty seconds longer! Her curiosity was now turning to fear…If only she knew where the Potters were staying…

Dominique sighed as she stepped into the fireplace and dropped the floo powder. She wondered if Remus was home.

"Well, you said he sounded scared…" Remus muttered as they hurried out of Dominique and Sirius's house, after checking to see if Sirius had come back home.

"Yea..." Dominique replied, "and said he needed to go to Peter's…and he left, just like that…I get there, and no one's there…"

"Think it has anything to do with the Potters?" Remus asked, looking nervously at Dominique. She in return only shrugged.

"It's possible…" Dominique replied as they walked quickly through a muggle street. "I just wish I knew where they were staying…we could go check on them…"

"Sirius never told you?"

"No—wait—" Dominique stopped and turned to look at Remus. "what makes you think Sirius knows where they are?"

Remus sighed. "Lily told me a couple weeks ago that they were making him the secret keeper."

"Oh…"

Dominique made to continue walking, but Remus stopped her. "Wait…why were you surprised to hear that I knew Sirius knows their whereabouts?"

"Oh…nothing…I wasn't surprised…" Dominique answered untruthfully.

"D…"

"Really! I'm serious!"

They continued to walk. After a few moments of silence, Remus spoke up again.

"You guys don't trust me, do you?" he asked, almost casually.

"What?" Dominique asked, trying to sound surprised, in order to cover her guilt.

"Someone in the order's a spy…you guys think it's me, don't you?" he asked, in the same unnervingly calm voice.

"What? Why would you"—

"It explains a lot…"

"They think you are…" Dominique said quietly, looking anywhere but at Remus. She could just hear Sirius and James calling her a traitor…

"Who's they?"

"Sirius, James and Peter. I don't think Lily was really too convinced. Listen, how are we ever going to find them if we're ambling about on foot? We should've gotten our brooms…" Dominique said quickly, trying to change the subject. She was growing more and more uncomfortable.

Remus didn't answer. Anger was filling in him. All this time, his friends were distancing themselves from him because they suspected him. But why? What had he done to cause them to suspect him? He had been friends with them since their first year at Hogwarts…he had always been there for them…he never snitched on them when they acted up…he rarely came out and told them off when they were out of line…he didn't understand it. Why him?

"Remus…" Dominique started again, glancing around nervously as they walked down the quiet, dimly lit streets, "maybe we should apparate back to my place…get some brooms. It's a muggle area and I don't feel safe without having my wand out…let's go back. I'll get my broom, and you can use Sirius's Cleansweep"—

"I don't want to use anything belonging to him." Remus said automatically.

"Remus, I'm sorry," Dominique said, looking at him pleadingly. "I don't know what he and James are being arrogant little berks about, but we'll never find Peter and Sirius at this rate…"

"Has it occurred to you at all that I'm probably too angry at them to really care?"

"Yes, it has." Dominique replied quietly. "But you were always the considerate one. I figured you'd remember that Sirius is my husband, and understand my worry for him."

After a minute's worth of silence, Remus spoke up.

"Maybe we should report them missing…"

"To the ministry?"

"Sure. It's not to far from here"—

Remus stopped mid-sentence at the sound of an explosion, followed by a burst of light that illuminated the night.

"Over there!" Dominique shouted, pointing a few blocks ahead. Sure enough the sound of shouting and assorted commotion could be heard not far ahead, but not seen, as several office buildings had blocked their view. "Wands out?" Dominique asked as they hurried down the sidewalk, observing the aura of green light from the explosion. "I've got a bad feeling it's a wizard…"

"Either that or there's been a nuclear meltdown…wands sound like a good idea…" Remus replied.

As they reached the scene of commotion, Dominique and Remus were greeted by a large crowd of people, who were encircling and watching something with mingled fear and shock.

"Excuse us…" Dominique said as she pushed through the crowd with Remus. She stopped short as she reached the front, causing Remus to run into her. There was a large crater-sized erosion in the street, several people lay dead, while several others were being carried away in stretchers to muggle ambulances. There must have been some sort of bombing…but then…

Cornelius Fudge. A short, middle aged man Dominque recognized from the Ministry of Magic, who was slightly senior to herself, was standing amongst the police.

"We'll get this all taken care of, don't worry. A few words with the prime minister, really…" she heard him tell the police chief.

"Oh God…" Remus breathed.

Dominique looked at Remus curiously, but then turned to the direction which Remus was looking, in order to see what rendered him so awestruck.

Sirius Black was being dragged away by several cloaked men, towards what looked like an official ministry car.

"Sirius!" she screamed.

But he didn't hear her. He was laughing insanely as he was being pulled away. "Peter you bastard!!" he shouted between his hysteric laughs, "I swear I'll be back to finish the job!! THIS ISN'T OVER"—

A young wizard with short brown hair and a sharp nose silenced him with the flick of his wand. Dominique recognized him as her boss, Crouch. "You are under arrest on the count of the murder of Peter Pettigrew, assistance in the murder of Lily and James Potter, and espionage…"

And Dominique heard no more. "No…" she breathed, as she felt herself go dizzy. Her surroundings went dim, and just as Remus saw her falling and caught her, Dominique blacked out and knew no more…

It was noon when Dominique opened her eyes. She fluttered them for a moment, trying to remember what had happened to her…and suddenly the memories came rushing back. Dominique sat up immediately but stopped short to observe her surroundings. This was certainly a familiar place. Just then, Madam Pomfrey came rushing to her side.

"Ah, she's awake headmaster!" she said, immediately grabbing her pillows to fluff them up.

"Madam Pomfrey"—

"Not the best time for a reunion, I know…" she said hastily, "but the headmaster thought it was best to bring you here to the hospital wing…wanted to keep an eye on you as well as his students. Not any major malady, I've checked. Just fainted from shock, that's all"—

"Ah, Poppy. Thank you for seeing to my niece"—Dominique shifted her attention to the entrance. There stood Dumbledore, along with Remus and Cornelius Fudge—"if you don't mind I'd like to take her away now and have a word with her in my office."

Within minutes, Dominique was following Remus, Fudge and Dumbledore up to his office. She walked alongside with Remus, but they dared not to speak a word to each other. When they had finally settled into Dumbledore's office, the headmaster turned to Dominique and Remus.

"I have had a long chat with Cornelius here, as well as other ministry officials, including our minister, Jenkins. I shall inform you of what we've come to a consensus on about tonight's incidents."

"First, the good news. It appears that after tonight, we can rest easy in knowing that Lord Voldemort (Fudge shuttered) has been defeated…"

"He's dead??" Dominique and Remus asked at once. But Dumbledore shook his head.

"Probably not. He's probably alive, but only just. If I know Tom, I am almost certain that he took precautions against death years ago. But it seems that presently, he is no longer a threat to us. His death eaters and followers have all disbanded."

"However, it grieves me to explain to you the cost of this wonderful victory. As you all know, Voldemort (Fudge shuttered again) had been after the Potters for quite some time. Today, his spy was finally discovered. Sirius Black, who was the Potters' secret keeper, gave away their whereabouts to Voldemort, and last night on Halloween, Voldemort showed up at their hideout and killed Lily and James."

"But Harry"—

Dumbledore put a hand up to Remus to silence him. "Voldemort then turned his wand to Harry, and attempted to kill him. His spell however, backfired. This was probably due to the fact that Lily had died trying to save Harry. I say this because according to officials, her body was found by Harry, and they were both in the spot where his nursery would have stood."

Dominique stared at Dumbledore disbelievingly. How could he talk about such details with so much calmness? She imagined Lily; strong, brave Lily, standing up to the world's darkest wizard, guarding her son…

"So Voldemort's spell backfired, and either it killed him, which I find unlikely, or simply destroyed him and stripped him of his powers."

"What happened to Harry? Sirius was supposed to be his godfather…" Remus said, trying not to sound bitter at saying Sirius's name.

"Harry was ok. All that Voldemort left on him was a scar upon his forehead. His only living relative is Lily's sister, so he was left with them"—

"Lily hated her though," Dominique started, "Petunia hates magic"—

"I understand…" Dumbledore replied. "But under the circumstances…"

"Well, couldn't I"—

"Unfortunately, no." This time Fudge spoke up. "According to ministry law, your marriage has to be nullified since Black's gone to Azkaban"—

"He's in Azkaban?" Dominique asked disbelievingly.

"He's getting a very easy sentence." Fudge said swiftly. "Crouch wanted to take him straight to the dementors for a kiss, but the minister overruled him. That Jenkins is a softy…"

"So, we're not married"—

"Not anymore." Fudge replied. "Therefore, while under normal circumstances you'd be legally made godmother since you were the spouse of the godfather, because of the annulment, that rule doesn't apply anymore. Would you prefer to stay married to a convict?" he asked, with a note of sarcasm.

"No." Dominique replied quietly.

"Well, this is to the extent that I know. Mr. Fudge, if you'll be so kind as to fill us in on Back's dealings with Peter Pettigrew?"

Remus and Dominique turned their attention to Fudge, who was now looking slightly smug and self important at having everyone's attention. "Well," he started, "based on interrogations from the various muggle witnesses we had on the street, we came to this conclusion. Young Peter Pettigrew was simply enraged and shaken up from finding out about the Potters' deaths. He allegedly went after Black and found him in that muggle street. He shouted at him, calling him a traitor. Pulled his wand out, silly of him, really. Black was much faster. Blew him to oblivion before Peter could so much as flick his wand. Blew up a hole right in the street. All we could find of the poor boy was his finger…"

Remus inhaled sharply. Poor Peter. Poor, stupid Peter. Sirius had always been twice the dueler Peter was. He should've left him to the ministry. But to go after Sirius…that wasn't something he'd have expected of Peter…to confront a friend…he suddenly felt proud of Peter, but the feeling quickly went away and was replaced by a surge of hatred towards Sirius. Cold-blooded murderer…

"He's been awarded order of merlin, first class of course. Should be a bit of a comfort to his poor mother…"

"He was laughing…" Dominque whispered.

"I beg your pardon?" Fudge asked.

"Sirius…laughing like a madman."

"A madman is an understatement, my dear. I saw you come in…you didn't hear the half of it" Fudge replied, turning towards Dumbledore. "He was like a lunatic. Completely unhinged. Probably because of his master's defeat…he was raving like mad…laughing and shouting…yelling at Peter as if he were still alive and standing there…making a mockery of the poor boy. And he kept making references to you-know-who…saying it wasn't over…his work wasn't done…"

Just then, a knock came from the door, and someone came in. It was Crouch and he was looking particularly smug at the moment.

"May I help you, Crouch?" Dumbledore asked.

"I was told I'd find Cornelius here, headmaster." Crouch replied.

"Everything alright?" Fudge asked, getting up and heading over to Crouch.

"Everything's fine," Crouch replied. "But the minister's in need of you. He wants you at the ministry. Actually, that puts me in mind," Crouch said, turning back to Dumbledore, "Minister Jenkins did say he'd like you to make an appearance at the trial tomorrow."

"Whose trial may this be? Mr. Black's?"

Crouch only laughed and waved a hand. "Course not, the bastard's already been thrown in Azkaban…" he cleared his throat uncomfortably and tugged at his collar as he spotted Dominique, staring at Dumbledore's desk, refusing to acknowledge his presence.

"No," he continued, looking more solemn now, "it's for the Lestranges. Rudolphus and Bellatrix…"

"I see. You've finally caught them. Excellent work Crouch." Dumbledore said.

"Thank you Dumbledore. We got a heads up from an old death eater…gave away a bunch of names to save his ass. So, will you be at the trial? Jenkins said he'll send you a briefing later…"

"Of course."

"Good. I hope to get them the heaviest punishment. They lost me two of my best aurors."

"Who?" Dominique asked suddenly. Being an auror in training, she was very good friends with most of her senior colleagues…

Crouch turned to her with a look of surprise on his face, but slowly frowned. "The Longbottoms…"

"What??" Dominique and Remus asked together, looking at him incredulously.

"They killed"—

"Worse," Crouch said, shaking his head. "Tortured them to insanity…they wanted to know you-know-who's whereabouts…they're at St. Mungo's for good now. Saw their little tyke being handed over to Frank's mum. Strict old bag, she is…"

And now they had lost Frank and Alice, Remus thought sadly. He glanced over at Dominique, who looked like she was on the brink of an emotional breakdown. Six friends gone in 24 hours. Five dead, one turned traitor and shipped off to Azkaban….

"Well, we should get going right away then. I'm dreading to see my mailbox at the ministry…" Fudge said.

"It's a nightmare over there." Crouch replied as he headed towards the door with Fudge. "Busy as hell. You'd think it'd calm down a bit with you-know-who being defeated…"

"I say," Fudge began, "after the work's all done, we need to celebrate. Three Broomsticks tonight?"

"Sure, why not? Dumbledore, you ought to come too," Crouch said, looking over his shoulder to the headmaster, "you kids can come as well." He added, noticing Dominique and Remus, though as he glanced at Remus it was with a small look of disdain.

The three nodded at the ministry officials and said goodbye. However, just as they opened the door to leave—

"Crouch, wait"—

Crouch turned around to see Dominique getting of her chair and running up to meet her boss.

"Yes, Fiore?"

Fiore. The name sounded almost foreign to her now. She had become accustomed to being called Mrs. Black...she should be glad to be ridden of the name though now…

"I wanted to let you know that I'm resigning."

"Beg your pardon?" Crouch asked.

"I'm resigning…"

Crouch looked at her with surprise, but quickly regained his composure. "Trainees don't resign. Only our aurors"—

"Whatever you call it," Dominique said, "I quit…"

Crouch nodded and turned around to leave. "Have your desk cleared out by Monday." He said as he left.

"D"—

"Don't question me." Dominique said curtly before Remus could so much as start his question. "I know what I'm doing and I know what I want. I'm sick of fighting"—

"But the fighting's done!" Remus said.

"Yes, and at what cost?!" Dominique asked furiously, "Our friends are all dead!! My husband…he…" her voice cracked at the tightening of her throat. Soon she found herself being ushered back into her seat by Remus as she broke down and cried.

"I hate him!!" she sobbed. "I married that fool! Pretended to hate his family line, and all this time, he was with them! I can't believe this…I can't believe he did this…he lied…betrayed me…"

"I believe anyone who's known Black personally is feeling quite betrayed at the moment…" Dumbledore said sadly. "He had us all believing he was dedicated to our cause…my dear"—

Dominique had gotten up abruptly and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Remus asked.

"I don't know…I want to be alone…I want to get away…"

"From us?"

"From everything…this whole stupid magical world…I hate it…I don't want to deal with it…"

"But Dominique"—

Remus made to get up to follow his friend, but Dumbledore stopped him.

"Let her be," he said as Dominique slammed the door shut. "She'll come around. She always does."

After a moment of silence between the two, Remus stood up. "I should get going, sir…I need to see to my mum"—

Remus was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in…" Dumbledore said.

Minerva McGonagall entered the room, carrying an envelope. "Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt"—

"Oh not at all, Minerva…how can I help you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, I ran into a ministry official on my way back here…Bertha Jorkins…she gave me this"—she handed the envelope to Dumbledore—"she told me an owl delivered this to the Potters' house when they were clearing up the rubble…she wasn't exactly sure what to do with this, so when she ran into me she thought you should take it…"

"Thank you, Minerva."

McGonagall nodded and turned to leave, but then looked back at Dumbledore. "Albus, are you absolutely certain that you want to keep Harry with those Dursleys"—

"I already explained the whole thing to you, Minerva. It is the best way to protect Harry."

Professor McGonagall only sniffed as she turned on her heel and left.

"Minerva had been observing the Dursleys all day in her animagi form, since she found out I'd be sending Harry there, and informed me that they were the most disagreeable sort of muggles…" Dumbledore explain. "She doesn't really approve of the plan."

Remus shrugged. "I met Petunia once. I can't say I liked her much myself."

"If I could leave Harry to someone like yourself or Dominique, good friends of James and Lily, I would…but I find that Harry's happiness is second to his safety. And I'm sure that no matter how the Dursleys treat him, he'll come to Hogwarts in one piece, ten years from now."

"Right." Remus replied. "Well, I should go, I'll leave you to your letter…"

"Not so fast, Mr. Lupin," Dumbledore said as he opened the letter, "this seems to be from a Miss Kierra Nakofsky…"

"Sorry?" Remus asked abruptly. It had been a long time since he heard that name…

"Kierra Nakofsky…seems that she was still keeping touch with the Potters…" Dumbledore said as he skimmed through the letter, and with a glance at Lupin, he added, "and it seems that you two haven't…"

"Me and Kierra?"

"Kierra and I." he corrected him. "Your grammar is usually up to snuff, Mr. Lupin…"

"Er…"

"Perhaps you should read it…you've more a right to it than I…" Dumbledore said, handing the letter to Remus.

"Oh…ok…" Remus said dumbly as he took the letter from him and read it:

30 October 1981

Dear Lily,

I hope this finds you and your family in good health, and more importantly, safe. It's been a while since I've heard from you or James, so I thought I'd drop a few lines. Alice wrote me a while ago and told me you all were planning on playing a very extended game of hide and seek with that crazed psycho with a wand. I think I can safely assume that that's what's happened to you guys. I just hope you all are ok. Whenever you get this, please write me, even if it's just a line. I just want to know that you all are fine.

In other news, nothing has really happened here. I'm getting a bit sick of the states. I've been living here for a while now, and people STILL say they can't understand me…like I'm some sort of Cockney or something, good grief. It's those Americans that have got God-awful accents. The only thing I honestly like about this place is the food. They have a lot of it. Everywhere. Oh, and the boys. They're really attentive around here. Then again, it might be the whole accent thing… Anyway, after my contract expires (not for another bloody three years!), I plan on looking for work in Britain, or at least in Europe. France would be my second choice. I went there for vacation a few summers ago, remember? I liked it. I'd have to learn a bit of French though first. Ugh. Anyway, It'll be great to see my family more often, and of course, all of you.

Before wrapping this up, there was one thing I wanted to ask you about. As you know, D and I haven't been talking. I've been feeling horrible about it, and Alice told me in her last letter that she and Sirius were getting along terribly. I've had the urge to write to D several times, but I never do it, I don't know why…I don't know what to say. Heck, I don't even know if it's safe to write. You know how she holds grudges…Does she still hate me? Another person I haven't talked to for ever longer, that I've thought about a few times was Remus. How's he doing? How's his mother? Peter had mentioned in his last letter that Mrs. Lupin wasn't doing well at all. Hope she gets better. Well, best to get going now. Give my love to the family and the gang, and give Harry a kiss for me. Hope to hear from you (and/or James) soon.

Love,

Kierra

Remus looked at her signature nostalgically…she scribbled a heart over her 'i' instead of dotting it, just as she always did. She mentioned him…she hadn't forgotten him then…Kierra thought the Potters were still hiding…she talked of people who were dead…she had no idea…

"Mr. Lupin"—Remus looked up quickly at Dumbledore—"Though I'm sure someone in her family will write her about last night's incidents, I hate to see this letter go unacknowledged and unanswered…"

"Right. I understand…perhaps we should show this to Dominique, and she can write to her?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Aside from the fact that they still are not on speaking terms—Dominique told me she had gotten into a fight with Kierra a while ago…for what reasons, I don't know"—Dumbledore added when he saw Remus give him a curious look—"there's also the slight problem that Dominique is not here. I have no idea where she's gone, nor how long she intends on being away. I think it best that you write her. I could easily do it myself, but I think Kierra would rather hear it from an old friend."

"Though it seems as you're not on speaking terms with her either," Dumbledore said quickly, before Remus could protest, "you don't seem to be on bad terms. I think she mentioned you in her letter…asked how you were"—

"She asked about my mum." Remus said.

"Well, even so, you've obviously been in her thoughts. I think she'd appreciate a letter from you, Remus. If you really do find it too difficult to do this, I will be more than happy to write her myself."

Remus sighed, looking away from Dumbledore, feeling a pang of guilt. Yes, it would be too difficult…

"I'll write her." He said.

And with great difficulty, he wrote her. Remus sat at his desk for nearly two hours, writing draft after draft. Finally (after four drafts), Remus sealed his final letter to Kierra. He managed to break the terrible news of the Potters, Longbottoms, Peter and Sirius (not to mention Dominique quitting her job and taking off) in what he thought to be a fairly gentle manner. He (most hesitantly) ended his letter by saying that it was nice to hear that she planned on moving back to Europe in a few years time. He was about to add that everyone had missed her, but then he realized it was hardly a comforting thought—everyone who had missed her was now dead or at St. Mungo's. Well, except for him. But she couldn't know that. After he signed it 'sincerely, Remus Lupin', it occurred to Remus that Kierra would be wondering how he got a hold of her letter in the first place, so he stuck on a p.s. and explained how her letter got in his hands.

As Remus sent his owl off with the letter, he headed to his room and collapsed onto his bed. He had only gotten a couple hours of sleep last night, as he had been awoken by Dominique in the middle of the night. He would go to sleep, and perhaps he would wake up and find out that it was all just a nightmare…


	39. Chapter 40: Prisoner of Azkaban

some responses to reviews/emails:

since I can't personally reply to all the reviews I get, since I don't have everyone's email addys...well, here I am ) so a few things...

-I want to apologize for any past and/or future mess-ups in the chapter layouts (rolls eyes) I'm just not good w/ computers...if you at any time have difficulty w/ reading my chapters here, I also post on harrypotterfanfiction com, my user name is joliefille252.

-yes, I loved the show "friends" and watched it religiously for years...and I think I mentioned somewhere in an A/N that I was probably subconsciously writing the plots of that show in my fic in various chapters lol im sorry, but I think I got it out of my system now...

-As far as where the fic is heading, it'll end around half-blood prince timing...so there's a few more chapters to be had)

-Am I going to make another connecting fic after I'm done w/ "last mile"? Probably not. I can't really think of any other angle to take w/ the marauders/kierra/dominique crew...but I am thinking of writing another fic after this..any suggestions as to what you'd like to read about, feel free to drop me a line ;)

general A/N: And we've reached yet another turning point in the story, this one is much bigger I think…a lot of time has elapsed (perhaps you can guess how much by the title!) so just keep that in mind. Also, I don't know how you'll feel about this chapter, as there's very little dialogue…mostly thoughts and stuff…it's sort of here as a set up for the next couple chapters, put it that way…anywhos, oh yea, for those of you who've read "long lost love" I'm happy to reintroduce a certain character…it's a little weird though, b/c as I'm writing this character out now, and I'm thinking, aaw u have no idea what's going to happen to you in a few years' time ( sorry, I'm a killjoy lol…anyway, this one's a shorty, I know, but I wanted to save the other stuff for the next chapter, anyway, read on! )

Chapter 40/41: The Prisoner of Azkaban

Kierra sighed as she scraped off the burnt bits from her toast. She was absolutely hopeless. Thirty-two years old, and she still hadn't mastered cooking with magic. Perhaps she should call it quits and continue to cook muggle style…definitely less hazardous for her. Just as she settled down at the kitchen table with her scraped up toast and coffee, a rapping noise came from the window. Kierra looked up to see a tired looking owl with her morning mail, begging for entrance.

"Alohamora…" Kierra muttered, and the window flew open, allowing the owl to fly in, only to plop right into the kitchen sink from fatigue.

"Ugh..." Kierra muttered as she got up to retrieve the bird. Attached to his foot was a copy of the Daily Prophet: Weekly Digest. Poor thing, flying all the way to Aveyron, France from England…Kierra reached under the sink for a bowl and quickly filled it with water for the tired owl. Taking her copy of the paper, she settled back into her seat and unrolled it. She had been so excited to find out that the Daily Prophet was available when she moved to France. Only, it wasn't daily—she received a weekly condensed-digest form of it. Still, something was better than nothing…

Kierra's eyes widened as she stared at the front cover. She hadn't seen that face in about fourteen years. It didn't look the same, but she recognized it. Underneath the photo, in large bold print, the title read, "CONVICTED MURDERER SIRIUS BLACK ESCAPES AZKABAN". Horrified, Kierra's eyes fell to the article:

_Thirty two year old SIRIUS BLACK escaped from Azkaban, the wizard prison in Britain, last Friday. Though his means of escaping remain unknown, British minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge (Order of Merlin, first class) speculates that Black "used dark magic he learned from you-know-who..." Black was convicted twelve years ago for the murder of Peter Pettigrew (Order of Merlin, first class), the assistance in the murder of Lily and James Potter, and espionage. _

_Known to be one of you-know-who's closest supporters, Azkaban chaplain John Feldman says "…he's the darkest of the lot. He killed thirteen people with a single curse, and there's no telling what he's broken out of Azkaban to do. All we can say is that if anyone sees this man, stay away from him, and contact the ministry immediately." There is a one thousand galleon award for the capture of Sirius Black._

Kierra dropped her paper. She stared at her coffee, suddenly losing her appetite for breakfast. She felt nauseous now. She spent twelve years trying to rid her self of those painful memories, and now they were being forced under her nose…

She stared at the picture of Sirius Black. He had once been the most good looking student in her year…Kierra had even sported a crush on him in their first year, but rid herself of it when he proved to be an arrogant conceit. Still, he was very attractive… She had known him…or at least she thought she had. Her old roommate had even married him; and she, Kierra, had been at their wedding...And now, as Kierra stared at Black's photo…he hardly looked recognizable. His silky locks of black hair were now straggly and matted…his once handsome face that gave an air of an aristocrat was now anemically pale, with his skin stretching out over his face like a waxen skeleton. He stared at her dangerously, as if daring her to say something. He looked almost unrecognizable, except his eyes…his eyes were the same. Dark grey and unfathomable…it seemed as if any life remaining in him was concentrated in his eyes. And the look Sirius wore, Kierra recognized it; she had seen him give her and many others that look countless times…he had a look that mingled between annoyance and impatience, which struck Kierra as a bit odd. She remembered seeing pictures of Azkaban prisoners before…they all looked tired and, well, for a lack of a better word, dead. That was the whole purpose of Azkaban…to suck the life out of a person until they rotted away…and it usually only took a few weeks, from what Kierra heard. But Sirius Black…he looked pretty alive. Not well, not healthy, but definitely alive, and quite sane looking…it didn't look like he had suffered much., which was almost unnerving. Why wasn't he suffering like he was supposed to…like he deserved to?

As Kierra tore of the front cover and crumpled it up (the picture was scaring her), the words the article came back to her. "though his means of escaping are unknown"…. 'oh God…' Kierra thought. 'he was an animagus…'

She wondered how many people knew of his ability to transform into a dog, and if anyone had told authorities… 'no, no one did…it would've said to watch out for a big black dog in the paper if anyone had told…' Perhaps she should say something? She should tell authorities that Sirius Black is an unregistered animagus, and he turned into a black dog. 'Then they'd ask the details…' Kierra thought. It had been such a long time since she saw him, she could barely remember any of his markings…all she remembered was that he was a big black dog…and of course, she remembered why he became one; she was told in her seventh year…

And then it hit her. If she told authorities that Sirius Black was an animagus, she'd have to tell them that James Potter and Peter Pettigrew were as well. Perhaps that didn't matter much, since they were dead now…but then…Kierra's mind began to race…what if they asked how she knew? She only knew because she was dating their friend, Remus Lupin, who happened to be a werewolf, and because of him, they had become illegal animagi…if Kierra told, she'd have to tell the whole story, and she would have to drag Remus Lupin's name into the mud…Though they didn't keep in touch, and she had no idea on his whereabouts, she didn't want Lupin to get in trouble, as she knew he would. After all, he was a werewolf. A werewolf who forced two good citizens and one loony Azkaban inmate to become animagi, for his own benefit…Perhaps they'd even stick his name, or even her own name, with Sirius's, and make them out to be Blacks helpers, who got him out of prison, or some other twisted sort of rubbish…

Maybe Black didn't need to transform to escape and stay hidden…if he was a dark follower of Voldemort, surely he knew plenty of dark magic that he wouldn't have to resolve to becoming a dog…no, Sirius was a pretty intelligent wizard, he probably found some other way to do it…he knows that people in the wizarding world know about him being an animagus…he wouldn't try it…

As Kierra stuck her uneaten breakfast in the fridge and hurried outside for her walk to work, she wondered why Sirius Black had gone through so much trouble to become an animagus…three years, she remembered James Potter telling her…It just didn't make sense, that he'd go through all that trouble to help out a friend, only to turn his back on everyone a few years later and join the dark side. To this day, Kierra still had difficulty coming to terms with that fact that Sirius Black was responsible for his best friend's death…

* * *

The street lights had just lit up on Privet Drive, and a giant balloon could be seen floating up into the sky…It was odd balloon…brightly colored, and it seemed to have arms and legs…and it was shouting… 

Sirius Black ambled out from behind the bushes and trotted down the street, in order to get a better look. Suddenly, a good distance from where he stood, a tall scrawny woman and a very large moustached man came running out of a house, shouting at the balloon.

"Oh Marge!!" The fat man shouted.

"Vernon, you get me down!!!" The balloon screamed back.

That had to be the house…how many wizards could live on one muggle street? Sirius watched as the couple ran back in.

"Get back here, boy!!" he heard the man shout.

Sirius made to get closer, but suddenly a scrawny boy with jet black hair and glasses tumbled out of the house, pulling a large trunk along. He looked angry, and was rushing in the opposite direction. Soon he turned on the end of the street and onto Magnolia Crescent. Sirius's heart beat faster as the boy disappeared behind the corner...from the back, he looked exactly like James Potter…Sirius leapt forward and hurried down the sidewalk to catch up with him.

As he rounded the corner, Sirius slowed down and took refuge behind another mass of bushes. Harry had stopped walking, and turned to look around at his surroundings. He looked exactly like James when he was thirteen, from head to toe—except one thing—his eyes. His bright green eyes that shined in the darkness were his mother's.

He watched as Harry sighed in with mingled frustration and anxiety. He must have had a row with his aunt and uncle. Sirius smiled inwardly as he remembered the balloon of a woman floating in the sky, wondering what provoked Harry to blow her up…

Sirius pawed at the spot behind his ears—his fleas were killing him—he couldn't wait until he could transform into a human again. Then he remembered why he was forced to stay as a dog…Peter Pettigrew. Anger welled inside of him as he watched Harry walk further down the street, trying to decide where to go…it was because of Peter that he was forced to take refuge in his animagus form, hiding from authorities, while that rat mooched off another wizarding family for twelve years. The Weasleys…he had seen the family in the papers when Minister Fudge visited Azkaban. He saw the rat sitting on a boy's shoulder…and Fudge, the man had been fool enough to believe Sirius when he said he wanted the paper because he missed doing the crossword puzzles…Sirius kept the newspaper clipping in his robe pocket, staring at it in the daytime when he was hiding out…he was positive the rat was Peter…how many times had he seen him transform? And he was almost certain the rat in the picture was missing a toe…he remembered hearing all that could be found of Peter Pettigrew was his finger…clever bastard…Peter might have gotten the better of him twelve years ago…but not this time, Sirius would make sure of that…

He thought back of the family that had taken Peter up as a pet…they had no idea…they all looked so jolly and happy…he remembered a plump looking woman, whom Sirius took to be the mother in the family…she had a striking resemblance to Fabian and Gidgeon Prewett, two brothers who had been killed while working for the order of the Phoenix…he wondered if they were related… And the poor boy that held the rat so fondly…he looked about Harry's age. They probably knew each other; the article said the children would be returning to Hogwarts…and that was where he was heading to commit the murder he had been imprisoned for…Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Sirius backed up quickly behind the bushes as Harry turned around and spotted him. His appearance must have startled him, as his godson fell over in surprise. Sirius backed away further, holding his breath…great…he had scared his godson…just then a loud bang sounded, followed by a blinding light...

"Welcome to the Knight bus," Sirius heard a young man say, "emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve"—the conductor paused for a moment, probably to look curiously at Harry—"What were you doin' down there?" he heard the young man asked.

"Fell over…" he heard Harry reply.

"Choo fall over for?"sniggered Stan.

"I didn't do it on purpose…" Harry replied with a tone of annoyance.

"Choo lookin' at?" said Stan.

Sirius suddenly realized that Stan and Harry were looking curiously at the spot where he stood moments before, and he backed away further into the darkness.

"There was a big black thing," he heard Harry say nervously, "like a dog…but massive…"

"Woss that on your 'ead?" he heard Stan ask quite abruptly.

"Nothing…"Harry replied quickly.

"Woss your name?" the conductor continued to inquire.

"Neville Longbottom…" Harry replied. "So—this bus…did you say it goes anywhere?"

"Yep, anywhere you like, long's it's on land. Can't do nuffink underwater. 'Ere…you did flag us down, dincha? Stuck out your wand 'and, dincha?" Stan asked.

"Yes," Sirius heard Harry reply. "listen, how much would it be to get to London?"

"Eleven sickles," Stan replied. "But for fifteen you can get 'ot chocolate, and a water bottle, an' a toofbrush in the color of your choice…"

Moments later Sirius could hear Harry rummaging through his trunk, followed by the clinking sound of gold. He stepped forward slightly to get a better view. He watched as Stan and Harry lift the trunk, with an owl cage balanced on top, up the steps of the bus. And not a moment too soon, the Knight Bus zoomed off…

He wondered why Harry lied about his name. Neville…he remembered that was the name of the Longbottoms' son, who was also about Harry's age. Did he also go to Hogwarts? Was Harry thinking of him when he told the conductor his name was Neville? As Sirius made his way down the sidewalk, his thoughts continued on his godson. Was he a habitual liar or was he just nervous? Why had he run away from home in the first place? What caused him to blow up the woman named Marge? Had he even heard of Sirius's name? And what Sirius was most curious about, was he as much like James Potter in personality as he was in looks?

* * *

"Alright, you're dismissed when you've received your exam. Feel free to stick around though if you have any questions…" Professor Lupin said to his second years at the end of class. 

"Here you go Ethan—for a first exam, I think you all did very well—Judy…there you are…if you could write in black ink next time instead of pink…easier on the eyes..thanks…Ginny…"

The young redhead beamed as she received her exam, but then looked absolutely mortified when she flipped the exam over to the back, where she had been doodling. Though scratched out, she saw the remnants of her handwriting, which read "Harry Potter" with hearts drawn on either side of the name. Lupin, ignoring her blushes, continued down the row, handing back exams, pretending he never saw it. Truth be told, he saw it when he was grading the exams the night before, but only found it mildly amusing. After all, it was a typical scenario in his mind. It was always the older brother's best friend, or the best friend's older brother…

"Nora, here you go…" he said to the last remaining student, a timid looking blond girl.

"Thanks professor," she replied, looking pleased at her exam score. "Oh, I was wondering sir, I really liked these last few lessons, on dark creatures…and well, since we're moving on to dueling technique, do you think you can recommend any books for me to read?"

Lupin smiled. "On dark creatures, or magical creatures in general?" he asked, motioning her to follow him up to his office.

Nora paused for a moment to consider. "just the dark ones," she replied. "We're going to learn about the other kinds in care of magical creatures, aren't we?"

"Yes, I suppose you will," he replied as he scanned his bookshelves, "And from none other than the expert himself. Professor Hagrid really knows his way around magical creatures. But I'm afraid you'll have to wait until next year to learn about creatures like hippogriffs and blasted-end skrewts…"

"That's true…but I can wait on that…" Nora replied. "I really liked the lesson on pixies. How come we didn't cover hinkypunks…and kappas?"

Remus laughed as he pulled a few books out of his shelf and studied them. "I save those, and most dark creatures, for my third years. I just wanted to finish off what your last professor had started teaching you the previous term. I think in second year, basic dueling is very important to learn. Well, here you are"—he handed the books to Nora—"take as much time as you need with them…my personal favorite of the bunch is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them".

"Thanks so much, professor…" Nora replied, though her eyes were on the photo-plastered wall by the bookshelves. "These are beautiful…seems you have something from every country in the world! You travel a lot sir?"

Lupin smiled but shook his head. "No, but I have a friend that does…all these postcards are from her…"

Nora nodded and smiled back, and there was a short moment of silence where Nora shifted her small pile of books from one arm to the other.

"Well, I should get going," she finally said, "thanks again for the books."

"Any time, Nora. I'll see you tomorrow." Lupin replied. He smiled and waved goodbye to his student.

He watched as Nora left his office. Remus liked her very much. Of course, he never favored her above any of the other students; but he liked her all the same. She was a hard working student, and though she wasn't at the top of the class, she definitely had a thirst for knowledge, and loved to learn. She reminded him a lot of himself; Quiet, but not shy. She enjoyed herself, but didn't seem to like to break rules. He was almost certain that Nora Nakofsky would be a prefect in a few years' time…and in thinking of her name…he felt a slight bit of pity for her…Remus realized that 'Nora Nakofsky' didn't have a particularly nice ring to it.

Remus wondered if he was correct in hypothesizing that Nora was Kierra's brother's daughter. Although Nora looked like neither of them (from what he remembered of them), Remus realized that if Nora had been Kierra's daughter, then (most likely) Kierra would have been married, and Nora's last name wouldn't have been Nakofsky…Remus sighed. 'I'm pathetic..' he thought as he grabbed his pile of mail from the morning owls. 'I actually thought all of it through…I'm not even positive Kierra's last name was Nakofsky…'

Remus made a small face as he read a postcard from his friend Dominique. He couldn't understand why she always sent postcards—they were so small, there was hardly any room to write, which resulted in very brief letters from his friend—on the upside, he had a large collection of pictures from all over the world…the latest one was a breathtaking photo of the mountains of Austria…Dominique wrote that she was there performing with the Parisian Philharmonic Orchestra on a worldwide tour. Remus sighed—he had gotten used to her saying "I'm touring with the group…" in her letters—Dominique had settled herself in the orchestra several years ago, after she had gotten tired of traveling around Africa. When the war had ended, Dominique spent almost a year on a safari, going from country to country, until she landed herself in the Middle East, where she trekked through the deserts and found herself settling in Egypt, where she stayed for a full year in order to explore the country. Finally, with her wallet exhausted and thirst for exploration quenched, Dominique headed back to her old home in Paris, in search for a job. It seemed as though she'd go anywhere but England…but by swearing herself out of the wizarding world, and no formal muggle education, Dominique seemed to have no choice but to rely on her talent in music, and ventured out for an audition with the orchestra in Paris…and as a violinist, Dominique seemed quite content. She slowly worked her way up, and now had the first chair in the orchestra (Remus wasn't quite sure what that meant) and a few months ago she renewed her contract…of course, he rarely saw her…two or three times a year at the most…

Remus pinned Dominique's postcard on the wall, alongside the postcard of Holland, which he had received a month before. He settled back in his chair to read the rest of his mail, and reluctantly, he opened up his copy of The Daily Prophet…more on Black…

Remus sighed as he skimmed through the article about the most recent sighting of the criminal…there was that guilty feeling again…He tucked away the newspaper in his desk drawer, and cupped his face in his hands, letting out a small groan…maybe he should have said something to Dumbledore…but he couldn't…he just couldn't…

'I was never the brave one….' He thought sadly.

Lupin stared glumly at the drawer which held the newspaper…He was a complete coward, he knew it. Afraid of Dumbledore…afraid of losing the man's trust…but it had meant everything to him…if he lost Dumbledore's trust…

…but how could he bring himself to tell Dumbledore? He'd have to explain how he knew, why Sirius had become an animagus in the first place…Remus sighed as he remembered meeting Dumbledore, over twenty years ago. It was hard to believe it was that long ago…The headmaster was so kind to him, admitting him into Hogwarts when no other headmaster would; taking the trouble to devise a plan to smuggle Lupin out of the castle every month so he could transform…not telling anyone but the staff about what he was…Dumbledore trusted him, that he wouldn't harm anyone or endanger the life of any of the students. And yet he betrayed his trust years ago, by allowing his friends to become animagi, and he was doing it again by not confessing the truth when it needed to be known....but he couldn't do it…Dumbledore's respect was worth too much to lose…this job was worth too much to lose…it was a paid job…it was a steady job…two things he hadn't had in a very long time…and after twelve years, he finally gets to see his friend's son on a day to day basis…he couldn't afford to lose all of this… He was not only a coward, but a selfish coward…he wouldn't tell on Black because he himself had too much to lose.


	40. Chapter 41: Memory Lane

Chapter 41: Memory Lane

"Come in…" Remus said promptly, not looking up from his work as he heard a knock on his door. "Ah, Severus…please, come in…" he said more politely than friendly.

Severus Snape stood at the doorway of Remus's office, holding a smoking goblet, glancing around the room with a look of disdain.

"If you need anymore, I have another cauldron full in my office." Snape replied indifferently as he placed the goblet on Lupin's desk.

"Right, thank you Severus. I should probably stop by your office tomorrow for some more then." Remus said as he took a whiff of the potion and made a small face—"Er, just wait one second, Severus"—he said as Snape headed towards the door.

"Make it quick, Lupin"—

"I will." Remus said shortly, getting up from his desk, walking around it to see Snape eye to eye. "Just wanted a quick word with you about the lessons you were doing with my class while I was away. My third years were complaining that you jumped all the way to werewolves, and then assigned them to write two rolls of parchments"—

"What can I say? They were extremely behind"—

"NEWT exams don't even require two rolls of parchments for their essays, Severus." Remus cut in. "And I'm sure you know as well as I do that my students are not due to cover werewolves until end of next term."

Snape took a step closer to Lupin, so they stood only a foot apart. "Tell me, Lupin. Why are you so afraid of teaching your class about werewolves? It's your expertise, after all. You're not afraid of them finding out, are you?"

"It's not a matter of them finding out, or of expertise. It's a matter of staying with curriculum. Look, all I'm saying is that if you want to go about with your personal vendetta against me, that's fine, but you've no right to go off my lesson plan for the sake of vengeance."

Snape's eyes narrowed to slits as he made a fist in his robe pocket. "Why you insufferable"—

"Ah, Severus!"

Lupin and Snape turned towards the door, only to find Dumbledore standing there, looking at the two professors quite cheerfully.

"I thought I'd find you here. I saw the cauldron of wolfbane bubbling in your office…" the headmaster said to Snape. He looked from one professor to the other, seeming to detect a flicker of tension in the room. "I beg your pardon, I didn't mean to interrupt"—

"Not at all, headmaster," Snape replied coolly. "I was just leaving. You wanted to speak to me?"

"Yes, it's about those upcoming OWLs, one of the proctors sent me a list of the ingredients needed for the potions examination…" Dumbledore said, his voice trailing off as he left the office, followed by Snape. The latter however, looked over his shoulder and gave his colleague a final glare before shutting the office door….

Remus sighed as the door slammed shut. He wondered if confronting Snape was a bad idea…after all, he was the man who was brewing his wolfbane potion. No…Snape wouldn't try poisoning him, not under Dumbledore's nose…though he found it to be a quite unsettling thought in knowing that Snape wouldn't hesitate to poison him, given the chance. But what was he supposed to do? Pretend he didn't mind that Snape taught his class about werewolves? Remus wondered if any of the students had caught on; after all, they were given a couple of hints. Aside from the fact that he was always ill around the full moon, he remembered his boggart turning into the moon in front of the entire class during their first lesson. But then he heard one of the students commenting to a classmate, "Wonder why Professor Lupin's afraid of crystal balls…"

Remus smiled slightly. Crystal balls. He wasn't exactly terrified of them, but they did look reminiscently like full moons, with its perfect spherical shape, mists of fog floating mystically around it…

Remus took a sip of wolfbane potion and shuttered. Absolutely disgusting… 'Well, it could be worse', he told himself as he took another sip. 'You could be without the potion, and have to transform into a real werewolf…'

As he finished off his potion and headed out of his office and through the corridors, Remus thought of his last class, and the conversation he had with Harry Potter afterwards. He had only wanted to see Potter after class to ask him how he was, after hearing about how horrible his Quidditch match had gone against Hufflepuff. He was astounded to hear from McGonagall that Harry had fallen over fifty feet from his broom, which in turn had been crushed by the Whomping Willow. However, Lupin was taken quite by surprise when his student offhandedly mentioned Sirius Black in their conversation…

Of course he'd have known who Sirius was by now…but how much did he know? According to Dumbledore, Harry wasn't yet aware of the fact that Sirius was still his godfather, nor was he aware of how tied in Sirius was to the death of the Potters…

A part of Remus wanted Harry to know the truth about Sirius; Harry deserved the truth…but another part of him wanted Harry in the dark…the truth would torment him, and Harry had suffered enough, in Lupin's mind…

Well, there was no point in worrying about it, he was in no position to tell Harry anything…If the ministry wanted Harry to know, if Dumbledore wanted Harry to know…they'd tell him. Right now, Lupin's only job was to come up with a lesson plan for Harry next term. He assured the boy after their talk that after the holidays, he, Lupin, would teach Harry the defenses against dementors. There was only one defense, the patronus charm. But it was very advanced. How would Harry master it in such short time? Better yet, how would Remus even go about in teaching Harry this defense? They needed a dementor to practice on…but they couldn't use a real one; aside from the fact that it was too dangerous, Dumbledore would never allow it. He'd think about it during the break, Remus thought as he smiled and nodded as he passed by one of first year students in the halls. Right now though, he needed a break. Perhaps a quick trip to Honeydukes before dinner to restock his chocolate supply….Just then, a soft, misty sort of voice behind him made him jump.

"How wonderful to see you in the physical world…"

Remus turned around and sighed. "Oh, hello Sibyll," he said, smiling weakly at her, "Good to see you in the physical world as well…"

Sibyll Trelawney smiled and stared at Remus through her giant glasses, which magnified her eyes several times their actual size. She reminded Remus greatly of an insect…

"Yes…I do try to make an appearance once in a while…though not too often…I find that all the hustle and bustle in the corridor clouds my sight…the inner eye"—

"…relies heavily on clarity, I know…" Remus said with a smile. "Very good of you to take such care of your inner eye. Goodness knows how difficult it'd be to teach with that clouded up…"

Trelawney nodded and smiled sadly, still staring avidly at Lupin. "Dear boy, few people outside yourself truly appreciate the delicate art of divination…if they only knew how difficult it is to keep one's inner eye cleansed…and open…to keep one's aura"—

"Beg your pardon, Sibyll…I need to be going"—Remus said, trying not to sound annoyed at being called a boy—"Not feeling particularly well"—

"Of course"—Trelawney said, raising her voice slightly for dramatics as she put a hand to Remus's cheek—"my dear professor, you look very ill! I am afraid to say that I foresaw this many a night ago…"

"Right…well, I'll recover soon enough…" Remus replied, backing away slightly from Trelawney.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that…" she replied quietly. "I am afraid your time runs short"—

"Yes, I am a bit short on time, now that you mention it," Remus said quickly, taking a few steps further away from the professor before she could touch him again, "I should go"—

"Oh, but let me crystal gaze for you, professor," she said in a higher voice, "let us look into your future…let us look beyond"—

"No that's quite alright!" Remus said over his shoulder as he hurried away...

He shuddered at the thought of crystal gazing with Trelawney…she was one of the few staff members who didn't know of his condition, as she was usually in her own world during staff meetings, and frankly, Remus preferred to keep it that way. He hated to imagine her gazing into her moonlike orb, staring fixedly on a werewolf howling into the night…He wasn't being silly in feeling uneasy around her, was he? While she seemed like an old fraud most of the time, Remus knew not to underestimate the woman. She was the one, after all, who had predicted Harry and Voldemort's future many years ago…who knew how many prophecies were left in her that were yet to be made…

* * *

Nora Nakofsky galloped excitedly down the stairs as she heard the doorbell ring.

"I'll get it!!" she shouted as she landed hard at the foot of the stairs.

"Straighten the rug!" her mother shouted from the kitchen. Nora looked down, and just as her mum had predicted, Nora had disturbed the rug that rested underneath her with her landing. She stamped her foot down to straighten the creases in the rug, and hurried down the hall. The bell rang again, this time to the tune of "Joy to the World"….Nora grinned. She only knew one person who charmed their bell to ring song tunes when she came over…

Nora opened the door and squealed in the same high pitched tone as the woman standing in front of her did as they embraced.

"Kierra!!" Nora shouted as she felt herself being lifted off the floor by her aunt. "AAH Put me down!!"

Kierra laughed as she dropped her niece. "How's my favorite niece?"

Nora grinned wryly. "Your _only_ niece…I'm fine…here, let me take your stuff"—

"Aah, we thought it was you…'Joy to the World', eh?" came a male's voice from behind them. They turned around to see Nora's parents coming out of the kitchen.

Kierra grinned as she hugged her brother. "Better than last time, you have to admit…"

"Yes, what was it last time?" Kierra's sister-in-law asked with a smile, "Something by Michael Jackson, right?"

Kierra laughed as she hugged her sister-in-law. "Yes, it was…I promise, no more Michael…"

"…and no more M.C. Hammer, please…" her brother interjected.

"Aw, Harvey, you stink! You have no appreciation for muggle music…" Kierra said.

"And you have no appreciation for wizard music…" Harvey replied.

"Ok, enough on music…you two always get nutty when we talk about music…" Janine interrupted. "Let's go to the living room, I bet you're tired Kierra…Nora, honey, I was just making some tea on the stove. Go get a cup for your aunt"—

"Oh, water will be fine," Kierra said quickly as she followed her brother and sister-in-law into the living room, "I'm not really tired…I was asleep most of the trip…"

Harvey rolled his eyes. "Only you would fall asleep on the Knight bus…They still have that mad driver, don't they?"

"Yea," Kierra replied, "but I was beat when I got on the bus…I was up the entire night before, I was trying to get all my work done before coming here…"

"So are you teaching yet?" Nora asked as she came in with a glass of water for her aunt.

Kierra shook her head. "Not just yet…apparently all that teaching in the States didn't count for much…I think I'll be starting next school year…right now I'm busy doing a lot of research…in fact, I might be going to Egypt in another month or so, to help out with an excavation…I'll probably be going with one of my colleagues, Pierre..."

"Egypt? Oh cool! One of my friends went to Egypt over the summer…" Nora said excitedly. "Said she saw the pyramids…"

"What exactly are you going to be doing there?" Harvey inquired.

"Well, apparently some interesting artifacts have been found inside the Great Pyramid…they weren't discovered until recently because of some incredibly complex charms that were placed on some of the chambers…Anyway, it might help us better fill in some of the gaps we find in magical history…"

"Sounds fascinating…" Janine chimed in. "I heard the Egyptian wizards were incredibly advanced for their time…"

Kierra nodded as she took a sip of water. "They were. That's why I've spent half this year researching their work in charms and transfiguration…it's just so complex…"

There was a small pause in the conversation as Kierra put her empty glass on the coffee table. She turned to Nora, who sat next to her, and smiled. "So, how's school going for you? Second year, huh?"

Nora nodded. "It's going alright so far…"

"Doing well in all your classes I'm sure…"

"More or less…" Nora said with a small smile.

"Speaking of which," her mother cut in as she got up, "you haven't even touched your schoolbag since you came home…"

"Aw mum…come on"—

"yea, come on, mum!" Kierra chimed in. "Give her a break, Janine, it's the holidays!"

Janine shook her head. "I don't want you saving your homework until the last minute. At least do a little every day…"

"Ah, mum I don't have that much…I'll do it, don't worry…"

Janine sighed as she headed back to the kitchen. "Fine, whatever."

"Need some help getting dinner ready?" Nora called after her mum.

"That'd be great!"

"Oh, I'll help too"—Kierra started to get up but was pulled back down by her brother.

"It's alright—you two sit and chat, I'll help her."

"Why do I sense you have ulterior motives?" Kierra asked, looking at her brother suspiciously.

"Because I do," her brother replied with a grin. "See, we're trying to keep our house from burning down again…"

"Hey, that was just the kitchen curtain last time!" Kierra called after him as he got up and left.

"So…" Kierra said with a mischievous grin as she was left alone with her niece. "What's up?"

Nora laughed. "Not much, if you're referring to my love life, as I'm sure you are…"

Kierra's mouth fell open in mock-surprise. "Why, whatever do you mean?" she asked.

"I'm only twelve, you know…"

"So? I had my first crush at seven!"

"Yes, well, you're Kierra…you like to move faster than everyone else…" Nora said with a grin.

"So there's no one?" Kierra asked with a note of disappointment in her voice.

"Not really…I'm sorry…try again next year, maybe…" Nora laughed.

"I am thoroughly disappointed in you, Nora…I was hoping by now…"

"Hey I'm not the only one! I don't know any girls in my year who fancy any of the guys…well, except one of my friends—Ginny Weasley, she's the one who went to Egypt—she's had a crush on Harry Potter since forever…I think her older brother is best friends with him, and he came over to their house in the summer…told me she spent most of her time hiding in her room because she didn't know what to say to him…Oh, that reminds me, she brought me back a really cool souvenir, let me show you…" and Nora ran over to her trunk, which she had left in the living room, and began digging through it…

"Harry Potter?" Kierra asked with a note of amusement in her voice.

"Yea…I know…I think a lot of girls like him, being famous and all…I mean, he's not too bad looking either, I guess…but I don't know what he's like in person, I've never talked to him…although I guess he's really brave, because last year, the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and Harry fought a basilisk or something…"

"A basilisk?"

"Yea, I'm not sure about the details…it was all hushed up, I heard you-know-who had something to do with it…or Salazar Slytherin…and something about someone getting possessed and petrifying people…I dunno, but after that whole incident, Ginny was completely infatuated with him…"

"Sounds like a regular hero…" Kierra said.

"He is…and he's really good at quidditch. I heard he got on the team in his first year, and he didn't even try out…apparently McGonagall saw him once during flying lessons, and she was impressed…"

"Really? What position does he play?"

"Seeker…"

"He's not an egotistical, trouble making, loudmouth, is he?"

"Not really…surprisingly, through all that fame…he seems modest…but then again, I've never talked to him, so I don't know…why?"

"That's how his father was…" Kierra said with a distant smile.

Nora looked up from her digging and stared at Kierra. "You knew his dad?" she asked.

"Yea…he was a very good man, but a bit of a prat growing up…I knew his mum too…we were friends at Hogwarts…"

"Really? I didn't know"—

"Found that souvenir yet?" Kierra asked quickly.

"Oh…no not yet…" Nora said, returning to her digging. "Hmm, maybe I left it at Hogwarts…"

Kierra wondered now about Harry Potter. She hadn't thought about in ages, except once a couple of years ago when Hagrid wrote to her, asking for photos of Harry's parents…What did he look like? Was he anything like his parents? He was good at quidditch, and seemed to be the heroic sort…sounded a lot like James…

"Ah, here it is!" Nora announced as she pulled out a rather long, colorful quill. "I forget the name of the bird it comes from…but it's a native of Egypt"—

"It's very pretty…" Kierra said, taking the quill in her hand. "Can't say I recognize the feather though…"

After taking a moment to study the quill, Kierra leaned forward to replace the quill in Nora's trunk. "Wow, lots of books you've got here…" she commented.

"Yea, I needed them all. You'd think the teachers would cut us some slack with the holidays and all…I got homework in almost all my classes!" Nora said with a frown.

"Oh, that's just cruel…" Kierra said. "I'm imagining that McGonagall's amongst the group of evil professors who gave you homework? And Snape too, I'll bet…Sometimes I wonder if Dumbledore's gone senile…what on earth possessed him to hire that man?"

Nora nodded. "They showed us no mercy…actually no one really did…the only professors that didn't give us homework over the holidays was Flitwick and Lupin!"

"Sorry, who?" Kierra asked suddenly.

"You know Flitwick, you said he was teaching when you were there," Nora replied, "and Professor Lupin, he's new this year…teaching defense against the dark arts…he's loads better than that Lockhart…"

"Lupin?" Kierra asked. Was it… "What's his first name?"

"Er…oh, I think it's Remus…why? Do you know him?" Nora asked.

Kierra's mouth fell open in surprise as she stared at her niece. Then she laughed.

"He's teaching you guys??" Kierra asked in an amused voice.

"Clearly you do know him then…" Nora replied, looking at her aunt curiously. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing…" Kierra said, regaining he composure, though she still had an amused look about her. "I just haven't seen him in ages…not since I broke up with him…"

"You dated professor Lupin??" Nora asked incredulously. "No way…"

"It was a long time ago…when we were at Hogwarts, actually"—she said, and after a moment of consideration, she smiled—"_Professor_ Lupin…has a nice ring to it…"

"I can't believe you went out with him…" Nora said. "For how long?"

"Oh…less than a year, I think it was…started going out sometime during out seventh year, and I remember breaking up with him when I got my job in the States…"

"Aww…you left him?" Nora asked.

"Well, I didn't have much of a choice, did I?" I was moving! We were bound to beak up anyway, we fought quite a bit…had a few mini breakups while we were dating…"

"Gee, I wonder who started the fights…" Nora said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, it takes two people to start a fight, missy!" Kierra retorted.

Nora laughed. "I'm just teasing you…though I can't imagine Professor Lupin fighting with anyone, or even getting angry…he's so nice!"

Kierra snorted. "I see that he still keeps up with his good boy image…so…how is he as a professor?"

"He's really good," Nora replied, "he explains everything really well, and makes class interesting…"

"Sounds like him…"

"…only, I feel bad for him…he looks so tired and weak sometimes, and he gets sick often," Nora continued, "he's missed class a few times too…and he's always wearing shabby looking robes…I mean, I'm not shallow, I don't care about his clothes…but once in a while I hear snide remarks from kids…they're usually Slytherins…" she said with a look of disgust on her face. "Was he like that when you knew him?"

Kierra sighed and frowned slightly. "Well, he was always on the skinny side…I'm starting to feel bad now that I teased him about it all the time…"

"…he wasn't always sick, was he?"

"Er…no…" Kierra said quickly. "Not that I recall…"

"So…what was he like?" Nora asked suddenly.

Kierra raised an eyebrow at her. "I think you'd know better than me…I haven't seen him in like"—Kierra paused to count the years since she moved to the States—"fourteen years…he's kind of fuzzy in my memory…you see him all the time now"—

"But I don't _know_ him…I don't talk to him much outside class…"

Kierra smiled. "Well, he was really nice…good student…he was a prefect"—

"I mean what was he like as a boyfriend?" Nora interjected.

"Oh"—Kierra considered the question for a moment and smiled—"Well…he was a good kisser…man, did he know how to use his tongue"—

"Ew, Kierra!"

"What?" Kierra asked, looking at her niece innocently.

"Not that…"

"I know, I was messing around," Kierra said with a laugh, "I was just trying to gross you out…"

"Well, you've succeeded…" Nora replied, making a face.

Kierra laughed. "Sorry…although…now that I think about it…he probably could've put France to shame, the way he used to French"—

"Kierra! Stop!" Nora whined. "Don't make me lose my respect for him! Geez, I just wanted to know what kind of boyfriend he was…and you're telling me this dirty stuff…if mum knew"—

"She knows me pretty well…" Kierra said. "I guess she doesn't mind me corrupting your sweet little head…"

"Kierra…"

"Right…well, Remus was a nice boyfriend…I don't know what else to say of him…" Kierra said with a laugh.

"Was he romantic?"

Kierra thought back… "Yea…" she said slowly, "not sweep you off your feet romantic…wasn't exactly a Don Juan…but yes, he was romantic…definitely, very"— Kierra stopped in mid-sentence and looked at Nora with mingled curiosity and amusement. "Why did you want to know?" she asked.

"I don't know…just curious, I guess…" Nora replied—"What??"

Kierra was now looking at her with pure amusement

"I guess there's someone after all…" Kierra said with a mischievous smile.

"Sorry?"

"Your first little school girl crush! It's _Professor Luuuupin!" _Kierra giggled.

"What? What are you talking about??" Nora demanded, her ears turning slightly pink.

"Oh, it's no big deal! Everyone fancies a professor at some point in their academic careers!"

"But I don't"—

"Then why are you blushing?"

"Because you're accusing me! Kierra…look, that's gross…I mean, he's nice and everything, I like him a lot as a professor…but I don't fancy him like that…never have, never will…"

"Mmm hmmm…" Kierra mumbled smugly as she got up and headed towards the kitchen.

Nora followed after her.

"Kierra!" she whined. "I—do—not—fancy—Professor—Lupin—Oh, mum, dad!"

Kierra bit her lip to keep from laughing as Nora blushed even more.

"You fancy professor Lupin? The new guy?" Nora's mum asked, looking curiously at her daughter, and then turning to Kierra, who only shrugged.

"No! I don't! Kierra's just making fun of me…" Nora said quickly. "it's just not right…he's too old"—

"Hey, who are you calling old? He's the same age as me!" Kierra said.

"Do you know Lupin, Kierra?" Harvey asked.

"Well"—

"Yea, she used to date him…" Nora answered.

"Him, and every other wizard in England—ow!" Harvey yelped in pain as Kierra kicked him in the shin. "I was just kidding, sis!"

"Did Harvey and I ever meet him?" Janine asked. "The name Lupin does sound kind of familiar…"

Kierra shook her head. "No, you guys never met him…but you would've heard about him….I had a huge crush on him for over a year before we even started dating…I remember talking about him nonstop to you…" she added with a grin.

Janine stared at Kierra, and realization seemed to dawn on her as her mouth fell open. "Wait a minute," Janine started, looking warily at Kierra, "was he the one…that boy you went to visit over the holidays that one year?"

Kierra laughed. "I completely forgot about that! Yes, that was the boy"—

"Was he the same one…you…you know, at his house…" Janine said, "…and his parents caught you guys…"

Kierra gasped. "Oh, I completely forgot about that one too! Yes…that was him…"

"What'd you do?" Nora asked suddenly.

"Nothing…" Janine and Kierra said at once.

"Come on, what'd you do? What'd his parents catch you guys"—

"They didn't catch us…God, that'd be horrible…" Kierra said with a shutter. "They just found out…"

"Found out what?" Nora pressed her.

"Never mind…" Kierra said quickly. She felt herself go a little pink.

"Fine…I'll just ask Professor Lupin when I get back to school…" Nora said as she joined her father at the kitchen table for dinner. "I'll ask him what he and my aunt did at his house over the holidays that his parents found out about…"

"You'll do no such thing," Nora's mother cut in as she and Kierra joined them, "you'll only embarrass yourself in front of him, and you'll feel awkward around him the rest of the school year…"

"Why? Why would I feel awkward?" Nora asked. "What'd you guys do??"

"You know, there's a reason I left you guys and started on dinner without you all…" Nora's dad said. "I had a feeling I knew where this conversation was heading…I really don't to hear about it…Kierra's my little sister"—

"Wait a sec!" Janine cut in. "I remember that holiday! Harvey and I came to your house for Christmas," she said, turning to Kierra. "And you were going to his house…and your mum even gave you that whole talk…oh that was rich…you coming back from his house doing the exact opposite"—

"Aaah guys, come on, I'm losing my appetite!" Harvey interjected.

"I wanna know!" Nora whined. "What'd grandma talk to you about?"

"Harvey's right, let's drop this subject of Lupin…" Kierra said suddenly. "Nora, pass the potatoes…"

Nora frowned as she handed her aunt the dish. Kierra in return only smiled. "If you drop the subject and not ask me any questions, I'll give you a few pre-Christmas presents after dessert…I've got some lovely little French things for you!"

With that said, a small smile peaked from the side of Nora's mouth. "Deal." She said.


	41. Chapter 42: Reunion

A/N: Now, I generally don't get into the POV of secondary characters, but I really like Nora's character, and really wanted to show a bit of her POV in this chapter, even though its not really important..lol just thought I'd say that…also, to answer a Q left for me: In "Sorcerer's Stone", Harry's dad was shown to be a seeker…but I think in some interview JKR said he was a chaser (quite possible he played both positions in different years)…in my fic I went ahead and made him a seeker…oh yea another thing, (lol sorry) first day of class today…I just had one class, and it was interesting…the professor I had…she reminded me remarkably like Kierra…it was ridiculous…I was just sitting there, thinking OMG I created you!! lol but it was interesting b/c before I came to that realization, I found myself not liking this professor at all…she was nice, but too…unprofessional…but this is great, b/c now I've got some more insight on how to present Kierra in some future chapters…won't say anymore here…but in time you'll come to see what I mean… ;)

Anyway, sorry this chapter's kind of short, but alas, I'm maxed out on credits and shall be quite busy trying to up my grades so I can get into a descent grad school…I'll try to update soon though!

Chapter 42/43: Reunion

"Professor Lupin, sir"—Remus, already heading back to his office after class, turned around to face one of his students—

"Yes Nora?" he asked, looking down at her to see her rummaging through her schoolbag.

"I just wanted to give these back to you"—She pulled out three books and extended them to him—"sorry I took so long with them…I meant to read them all during the holidays, but I ended up not having time…"

"Not to worry…" Remus said pleasantly. "Everyone gets busy over the holidays. How was yours by the way?"

"It was fun," Nora replied, "my aunt always comes to visit us for Christmas—kind of why I didn't get my reading done—she sort of demanded most of my time…always wants to talk…" she added with a smile.

Lupin nodded and smiled. "If I had any nieces or nephews to visit during the holidays, I'd be doing the same…"

"I wonder if you remember her," Nora said suddenly, trying to keep from smiling, "she uh…she…she said she knew you…"

Remus laughed. "Ah…so your aunt_ is_ Kierra…"

"You remember her then?"

"Yes, of course…we…well, we went to school together…" he replied simply, "Haven't talked to her in ages…Is she still living in the States?"

"No," Nora replied, "she moved to France a few years ago…she works for some wizarding school there…"

"Beauxbatons?" Remus asked.

Nora shook her head. "No, it's another one, in Aveyron...sort of a wizarding university…it's for overage witches and wizards, who want to study further."

Remus smiled. "I knew her well…but I have to admit it's hard to imagine her as a professor…"

Nora laughed. "Well, she's not teaching just now…she's just doing research for them…but she's supposed to start teaching later on, next year I think…"

"Well, that's good for her that she's all settled there…"

Nora glanced briefly at her watch and smiled at Professor Lupin. "Well, I better go. I don't want to be late for potions."

"Of course. Well, if you ever write your aunt, tell her I say hello." He replied.

"Sure thing. I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks again for lending me the books!" Nora said as she headed out the classroom.

As Nora headed down to Professor Snape's class, she couldn't help but smile…"Ah, so Kierra_ is_ your aunt…" he had said…he remembered her, he had given consideration to the idea of Nora being related to her…he had thought about her… 'Her being Kierra, of course…' Nora told herself sternly. 'Not me…' Though…if he thought of Kierra being _her_ aunt, he must've…'

Nora frowned and she hurried down the stone steps towards the dungeons. 'He is a professor…you don't like him…and he never thought of you…he thought of your aunt…and even if he thought of either of us, it probably wasn't anything…'

Nora sighed as she pulled open the heavy wooden door of Professor Snape's classroom. It was all Kierra's fault…putting these thoughts in her mind…And now, thanks to her aunt's teasing, Nora spend quite a bit of her time daydreaming about her defense against the dark arts professor, though she was constantly being gnawed at by her guilty conscience…

'What if he and Kierra never broke up, and they got married? He'd be your uncle…' Nora reminded herself... 'What's wrong with you?' she chastised herself as she took a seat in the back. 'You sicko…he could've been your _uncle_'—

"Five points front Gryffindor." said a cold voice from the front of the class. Nora looked up to see Professor Snape standing in front of his desk, glaring at her. "Class started two minutes, Nakofsky."

"Right, sorry…" she replied quietly. Oh, how she hated being singled out in class…especially in potions…

"Why are you late?" he asked.

"I was in"—

"Defense against the dark arts?" Snape asked. "Yes, your other classmates came from that class as well. Yet somehow they all managed to come on time. Clearly taking your sweet time in getting here is more important than punctuality."

"Please sir," Nora insisted timidly, "I had to see professor Lupin after class"—

"If that be the case, then you should request a note from him excusing your tardiness. You will do so"—Nora got up from her seat—"after my class is over. You won't be going on time…"

Nora nodded and sat back down. Stupid git… Potions rolled by very slowly, and as Snape finally dismissed them, Nora glumly headed back to Lupin's office to get a note of excuse for Snape…

"It's a bit cooler here than I had expected…" Dominique said as she buttoned up her coat.

"You've spent too much time in the Mediterranean…" Remus replied with a smile. "So, where would you like to go? Three Broomsticks is usually packed…especially with all the students there today…"

"Well…how about Madam Pudifoot's?"

Remus frowned. "It's going to be filled with couples, mostly students…I don't want to see it"—

Dominique laughed. "Got it…I'm sorry…of all the days to come to visit, it had to be a Hogsmeade weekend for Hogwarts…" Dominique said with a smile. "Well, I have no idea…I haven't been here in a while, you know…you pick…"

"Well, there's a nice little bistro down the street…very few students there, since it's pretty easy to miss…"

"Sounds good. Lead the way…" Dominique replied.

"So...you've already visited Dumbledore?" Remus asked as they seated themselves at a cozy little booth towards the back of the restaurant.

"Yes, I took tea with him yesterday. It was really nice to see him…" she replied, forcing a smile at Remus.

He smiled sadly at her. "Everything alright?" he asked.

"Yea…everything's fine…" Dominique said quickly. "We had a nice time"—she stared at Remus, who had looked away from her, and sighed—"I can't hide _anything _from you, can I?" she asked with a small smile.

"We've known each other too long…" he replied. "I'm just guessing here…but…I'm thinking Dumbledore tried talking to you about things you're not ready to discuss…"

Dominique simply nodded.

"D, I'm sure he's just trying to help you"—

"I know…but can't he give it a rest? Almost every time we talk, he has to bring him up!"

"He wants you to talk about it, that's why…" Remus said.

"Well, I don't want to talk about it…" Dominique replied crossly.

"It's not good to keep everything bottled up…" Remus said quietly. "when…everything happened, twelve years ago, you just left all of us…you busied yourself and when you came around, you acted as if nothing happened"—

"I just needed to get away…to mull things over…"

"But you didn't, D." Remus said. "During that time, while we were all coping with the pain, you ran away from it, because you didn't want to feel it. And you've put it on hold for too long…"

"I haven't"—

"You have, and you know the only way you'll have closure and move on is if you endure that pain, and cope with it…you need to let it out…"

Remus looked straight at Dominique. She was staring down at the table, seeming to be on the brink of tears. "I'm sorry…I don't mean to be harsh…"

Dominique shook her head and wiped her eyes quickly. "You're not…I know you care…"

"As does Dumbledore…he always means well for you…"

"I know…" Dominique replied. "I just—you're right…and I hate that," she added with a weak smile, "but you're right…I ran away…I was a coward…I didn't want to deal…"

"I know it's been difficult, but you need closure…if you want to break down and cry, break a few things maybe, it's alright…"

Dominique nodded.

"…we can go to the Shrieking Shack if you'd like, plenty of old furniture there to break…" he added with a small smile.

Dominique laughed. "You're very good, Lupin."

"I don't know how to feel sometimes," Dominique said as they ate their lunch, "I mean…I used to have this world, where I had a wonderful husband who loved me to death…he cared about me and did everything for me…and I had imagined him as this perfect man…and then, all of a sudden he turns around 180 degrees, and this man doesn't exist anymore…I felt so…so…"

"Cheated?" Remus offered.

"Precisely…I felt cheated…thought I was getting a galleon, instead I get a knut….a counterfeit knut, more like it…"

Remus nodded in understanding. "I think we all felt like that…but then time went by and we moved on and forgot about Sirius…and now that he's on the loose"—

"All those memories come back…" Dominique finished. Lupin nodded in return.

"The other day, James and Lily's son was talking with me…I told you in my last letter I was to teach him the patronus charm…and out of the blue, he asked me if I knew Sirius"—

"How did he know?" Dominique asked suddenly.

Lupin shrugged. "He said he knew Sirius was friends with his parents…no idea how he knew that… but all I could say was that I thought I had known him…after Harry left, I just thought about that…thinking about the days when we were all friends…I really thought I knew him…"

"Sometimes I just don't understand it…" Dominique said as she reached across the table for the salt shaker. Remus watched as she sprinkled salt on her ravioli and placed the shaker by her plate.

"How he could've turned?" Remus asked.

Dominique nodded. "I just don't get it…he had us all believing he was on our side…but then…I should've had some suspicions…when he started convincing James that it was you who was the spy…that rat…trying to blame you…"

"I have to admit I was a bit suspicious of him…I mean, I knew I wasn't a spy, unless I was being possessed or something. To me it was either Peter or Sirius…and well, we saw what happened to poor Peter…"

Dominique sniffed and dabbed the corner of her eyes with her napkin. "I felt so bad for him…poor guy…practically living in Sirius and James's shadow his whole life…and then Sirius, that stupid jerk"—Dominique sniffed again as the tears fell freely from her face—"blew him up…"

"Shh…" Remus extended his hands across the table and put his over hers. "I know…Peter died a hero though…"

Dominique nodded. "It's because of that asshole that Harry hasn't got any parents…I mean, I know Dumbledore keeps a close eye on him, I know you do too…but it's not the same as having parents…you know?"

Remus nodded. He glanced down briefly at his watch but then gave it a double take.

"Do you need to go?" Dominique asked.

"In a bit…" Remus replied. "I'm sorry"—

"No, no…don't apologize…I'm sorry…you haven't even finished your lunch, we've talked so much…"

"It's quite alright. Soon as I finish though I'll be on my way." He replied.

Remus continued on his lunch for a moment, but stopped to look up as he felt a pair of eyes on him. Dominique had been watching him, but quickly shot her eyes down to her own meal when they made eye contact…

"I hope you're feeling a little better..." Remus said slowly, watching as Dominique ate a spoonful of soup. She rested her spoon against her bowl and smiled at Remus.

"Yes, I do feel better. Thanks…"

She continued to stare into Remus's pale eyes…the way he always looked at her with concern…he might've appeared different with his slightly greyed hair and coarser voice, but he was still the same, caring Remus she had always known… She looked longingly at him, lost in his eyes, when suddenly—

Dominique's heart skipped a beat when Remus leaned across the table, drawing closer to her…she felt herself leaning towards him…Dominique closed her eyes as she also leaned over her meal, and not a moment too soon, his lips were pressed against hers…

Or were her lips pressed against his? Well, It didn't matter…they were kissing each other and it felt good…He was the man she should've gone with, Dominique thought. She had been so smitten with Sirius when she was younger, she was oblivious of the wonderful friend she had known since childhood…he was so perfect…how had she overlooked him?

As Dominique deepened the kiss, she took in the feel of Remus's lips…they were soft and warm…and slightly limp…come to think of it, Remus wasn't the most responsive kisser—

Dominique opened her eyes ever so slightly, and in the corner of her eye, she could barely see Remus's arm near hers…but he didn't touch her…in fact…it looked like…. 'Oh dear…' she thought suddenly…

Dominique slowly pulled away from Remus and looked down at his arm that was extended out on the table…he had been reaching over to take the salt shaker…

"Oh…" Dominique said quietly, feeling herself go red…

Remus looked at the salt shaker and slowly let go of it, deciding he didn't need it anymore…

"Um…" he stammered…what does one say in these situations? Remus had no idea…

"I'm sorry…" Dominique said quickly. She looked down at the table. "I…um…I thought you were…" Her voice trailed off, she was too embarrassed to speak. Dominique bit her lip…she could still taste him…She felt herself burning with shame…

Remus shook his head slowly as he also looked down at the table. "It's ok…" he said rather dumbly…

There was a moment of silence between the two, which seemed like an eternity to Dominique. What had possessed her to do that? How could she have been so stupid to think…Remus...and her…

"You should go now…" she said quietly, still looking down at the table.

"Sorry?"

"You should go now," she said a bit louder, "you have to go back to the castle…"

"Right…" he said, reaching into his pockets, rummaging for money. "Um, listen…D…don't feel"—

"I'm not feeling anything." Dominique said quickly as she got up. "I should get going"—

"But D"—

"Bye Remus…" she said in an almost whisper, tossing a few galleons onto the table before hurrying away.

"Dominique!" Remus called after her. He quickly pulled out a few galleons and dumped them on the table and ran after her. As he came outside and looked around, he saw that Dominique was nowhere in sight. She had done it again... Remus sighed as he headed back inside the restaurant to get his coat. He wondered though how long her hiding would last this time…

Remus looked carefully over his letter that he had spent almost half an hour trying to compose, wondering if he had been too forward. 'Maybe, but better to be direct than being wishy-washy…' he thought as he reread his letter:

_21 May 1993_

_Dear Dominique, _

_I hope this letter finds you in better spirits than you were on your last visit here, but as I haven't heard from you, I take it perhaps you are not. I would've written earlier, but preparing final exams for seven classes kept me from doing so. I must admit, I was waiting (albeit too optimistically I now see…) for a letter from you, but now I see that was quite foolish of me to expect that from you. Forgive me, but in light of what happened over a month ago, I must speak plainly to you. You've done it again, Dominique. Didn't you gain anything from our conversation last month? Running away to hide never erases grief or shame. I thought we had agreed that…but now you've gone and done it again. You didn't even want to talk after we kissed—you just took off… Please Dominique, we're both mature adults…we can just forget about what happened and put it behind us…I certainly would like to, I'm sure you do too…_

_I won't force you to speak your mind and open up to me, but you know I'm always ready to listen. If you want to talk about what happened, I'm here. If not, and you'd like to forget about it and move on, I'm also willing to partake. But I do ask you, Dominique, to not to throw away a lifetime's worth of friendship…We've lost friends to death, and even to Voldemort, so please don't devalue our relationship by ending it over one little kiss. _

_Yours,_

_Remus Lupin_

Remus ran a finger over the hot wax that solidified as a seal over his letter. It was still soft, resulting in Remus's fingerprint to engrave itself on the seal. With a heavy sigh, Remus got up and tucking the letter away in his robes, he headed out of his office. After he sent the letter, Remus knew, he was due to see Snape in his office for his wolfbane potion…

Once inside the owlry, Remus pulled out his letter and summoned a large tawny owl that he knew to be quite clever.

"I think she's supposed to be in Dublin for a concert…I have confidence you'll find her…" Lupin said as he gently stroked the owl. The owl in return hooted, and clutching the letter with its claws, it flew off.

Remus watched as the owl disappeared into the red-orange sky. Suddenly he remembered: Hagrid's hippogriff was to be executed at dusk…he wondered if they'd try…

Remus shut the door of his office and pulled out his wand as he took a seat at his desk. He pulled out a tattered piece of folded parchment from his top desk drawer that he had confiscated from Harry and tapped it with his wand.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He said quietly. Slowly, thin ink lines began to spread out from the spot his wand had touched. His eyes immediately fell on Hagrid's cabin. As he had expected, three dots were heading towards it, labeled "Ronald Weasley", "Hermione Granger", and "Harry Potter". Remembering that Hagrid had told him yesterday that Dumbledore would come to be with him during the execution, Remus's eyes traveled upwards to where he knew Dumbledore's office to be. Sure enough, a dot labeled "Albus Dumbledore" made its way out of the headmaster's office and down the corridors. Remus watched the headmaster make his way outside, where he stopped as he ran into Fudge and Macnair. Together, the three of them made their way down to Hagrid's hut.

Remus's eyes shifted towards the hut, where, to his relief, he saw Harry, Ron and Hermione leave through a back door. But just as he turned his attention to the headmaster, Remus did a double take at his three students—there were not three dots now, but four…

"Impossible…" Remus murmured aloud.

The dot was barely visible—it clung on very closely to the dot labeled Ron, but the name next to it was plain as day—Peter Pettigrew…

Was the map malfunctioning? How could he be with them? But he hardly had time to ponder the matter, as another dot was racing towards the foursome, the name appearing by it made Remus inhale sharply…

Sirius Black had crashed into the group, and began dragging Ron and Peter into the Whomping Willow…

Lupin's mind raced as he dashed out of his office. How…Peter was dead…Sirius wanted to kill Harry, not Ron…As he ran down the hill towards the Whomping Willow, Remus wondered how Peter's name could have appeared on the map…he was just there…with Ron…getting pulled through the willow with Ron…Ron...suddenly a light seemed to flicker in his head…Ron had a rat…didn't he? But…why...all these years…it didn't make sense…unless…no, it couldn't be…

Remus pulled out his wand and muttered an incantation to stop the willow from swiveling its branches at him. He took a deep breath as he crawled on all fours and crawled through the small tunnel he had grown to hate during his years as a student at Hogwarts…this was certainly one marauder reunion he was not looking forward to…


	42. Chapter 43: Their Letters

_A/N: So sorry it took forever to update…I was just about to finish the chapter up a while ago, but then my disk got messed up, and I had to reformat it, which in turn deletes everything on your disk…argh I was fuming…so I started from scratch…and then I'm overloading on schoolwork…taking more classes than I can handle…aaah...ok nobody cares, let's move on…oh yea, just note that I probably won't be updating as often as I used to…I'm not exaggerating in the least when I say school is taking up all my time…so, next update…no idea, but probably won't be too soon, sorry..  buuut on the upside I'm thinking at least the chapters will probably be longer (yay!) and uh…we're drawing near the end…just a few more things I needa get in…but just so you have an idea, it's going to overlap a bit with "Long Lost Love" / "Half Blood Prince"-timing…I didn't want to at first, but I realized I couldn't do it any other way…and well..you'll see in good time…lol oh ok and one last thing (I promise..) and I know I say this a lot, but here goes again- to those of you who haven't given up on me (even way after the summer and winter breaks and most of us are busy w/ school…even after you've probably hit some dull chapters here and there…even after it seems as though I've disappeared from cyberspace…lol ok u get the picture..) thank you so much for reading thus far! Thank you so much for reading, and reviewing…and…and…sighs thanks for sticking w/ me…tear stay tuned for the longer-winded version of the thank you speech in a few more chapters ;) lol alright then. I'm sure you guys could do w/out the long winded A/Ns..lol here we go, Chapter 4 :_

Chapter 44: Their Letters

Sirius Black stared miserably out the window of the tiny office he was being kept in. He knew it had been too good to be true…Twelve years, bidding his time in Azkaban, and he had finally revealed the truth. He was a free man for a full half hour…his godson even wanted to move in with him…

How could something so good even begin to last? Sirius should've known…with dementors lurking about everywhere…and yet, he was so close…

'Well, at least Harry knows I'm innocent,' Sirius thought, 'him and his friends, and Lupin of course…' that was the important thing. His only remaining friend and his godson knew he was innocent…

Suddenly the doorknob made a clicking sound and Sirius jumped. He turned around, swallowing hard. His muscles tightened instinctively in anticipation of the cold air that would be rushing in at any moment…so this office would be his last memory before he would be wiped out…

'Better than rotting away in Azkaban, right?' Sirius thought. 'At least it's in a place you used to call home…'

The door crept open, but no cold air, no dementors… Sirius relaxed his muscles as Professor Albus Dumbledore entered the office.

"Professor"—he croaked automatically as he looked anxiously at his former headmaster—"you can't let them take me"—

"Let who take you?" Dumbledore asked as he shut the door behind him.

"The dementors…they're going to take me…sir, you can't, it's all been a mistake"—

"The dementors won't be taking you anywhere," Dumbledore said quietly. "when Minister of magic Cornelius Fudge comes up here, he'll bring along a dementor to perform the kiss on you"—Sirius drew his breath in sharply at hearing this statement—"the reason I came to see you was because one of my professors and three of my students were out on the grounds tonight with you. Up until tonight, I had believed Remus Lupin to be completely trustworthy"—

"He still is!" Sirius said hoarsely. "He had nothing to do with me!"

"He didn't help you get into the castle then?" Dumbledore asked.

"No," Sirius replied, "I got in on my own…Harry Potter's female friend, Hermione, I believe was her name…she has a cat that I think is part kneasle...he was very intelligent and he helped me to get in by giving me necessary information like passwords and such…"

"You can communicate with cats?" Dumbledore asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, not always…" Sirius said slowly. "When I assume a certain form, I can…"

"And what form might that be?" Dumbledore asked, looking cautiously at Black.

"I'll tell you if you'll let me explain the whole story…I'm innocent, Dumbledore," Sirius said pleadingly, "It's all been a mistake, and you have to let me tell you everything"—

Dumbledore frowned slightly as he stared at Sirius. "Fudge will be here in ten minutes. You have until then to explain."

Not wasting any time, Sirius immediately delved into his story. "This all started with the issue of me becoming secret keeper for the Potters over twelve years ago." Sirius explained, "See, I never was the secret keeper for the Potters." Sirius looked at Dumbledore cautiously, wondering if he believed him. The latter only stared at Sirius with slightly widened eyes.

"You were the agreed upon secret keeper, you had said so yourself the day before the fidelius charm had been performed," Dumbledore said as he adjusted his eyeglasses, "the Potters had safely gone into hiding, I tested out the charm to make sure it worked…there was a secret keeper"—

"But it wasn't me," Sirius interjected, "the night I came to perform the charm, I realized it would be too easy for the enemies to know that I'm the secret keeper, I was James's best friend. That night, I convinced Lily and James to get Peter Pettigrew over and make him the keeper instead, I thought it'd be the perfect bluff…no one would ever think to go after him…"

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "That would make sense…"

"So reluctantly they agreed…we made him the secret keeper. And a week later, he turned." Sirius said bitterly.

"You are suggesting that Peter Pettigrew was the traitor?"

"I'm not suggesting it, I'm stating it, plain as day!" Sirius barked angrily. "And when I realized what he had done, I went after him. I cornered that rat, but before I could tell him off, he was ranting and raving, pretending to be grief stricken so he could lay the blame on me. I thought he was a fool. I laughed at him. I underestimated him. Before I could so much as pull my wand out, he had blown up the entire street. He's the one who killed all those muggles…"

"But"—

"Yea, the finger, right, I'm getting to the damn finger." Sirius said, cutting Dumbledore off. "All they could find was his finger…he cut it off…faked his own death…" Sirius looked at Dumbledore, who in turn looked quite somber.

"I know this doesn't make any sense right now," Sirius said more quietly, suddenly feeling guilty of his rude behavior with his former headmaster. "I'll show you what I mean now when I said I assume another form…"

And with that, Sirius closed his eyes and concentrated. Not a moment too soon, a big black dog stood on all fours before Dumbledore.

"Oh!" Dumbledore exclaimed as he took a step backwards to take in the transformation he had just witnessed.

A second later Sirius transformed back. "I'm an illegal animagus, sir." Sirius said simply. "That's how I could communicate with that cat. I've been one since my fifth year."

"Fifth year?" Dumbledore asked. "You spent three years under the roofs of this castle, as an illegal animagus?"

"I wasn't the only one. James Potter and Peter Pettigrew were as well. See, we did it for Lupin"—

"He knew all along you were an animagus?" Dumbledore asked.

Sirius nodded. "In the shrieking shack, he said he was afraid of telling you…since we became animagi for him in the first place…he didn't want you to know that he betrayed your trust while going to Hogwarts."

Dumbledore nodded. "When you say you all became animagi for him…I'm assuming you all did this so you could accompany him during his transformations?"

Sirius nodded. "And as you saw, I turn into a dog. James turned into a stag"—

"A stag you say?" Dumbledore asked suddenly.

"Er, yea…why?"

"Please continue with your story, Sirius. We'll get back to that later…" Dumbledore said, though his mind seemed to be on other things…

"Alright, well…Peter, he turned into a rat…and this is where my story will begin to make sense—that is, if you'll believe me that Peter could turn into a rat."

Sirius glanced up at Dumbledore, who nodded slightly, not in acknowledgement of his story, but for him to continue.

"Well, back to him blowing up the street. After he did that, he turned into a rat and bit off his own front toe, to make it look like I killed him. Disappeared down the sewers or something…now, right before I had broken out of Azkaban, Fudge came for a visit. He had his newspaper with him, and on the front cover was a picture of a family, they were in Egypt"—

"The Weasleys, I believe…" Dumbledore cut in.

Sirius nodded. "Right, the Weasleys. And I noticed one of the boys, who turns out to be one of Harry's friends…he had a rat sitting on his shoulder…I recognized him right away. I had seen him transform so many times…I saw the missing toe…I knew it was him. I saw in the article that the boy was going back to Hogwarts, so I broke out. I knew exactly where Peter would be…if you'll remember, when I broke in, and I had nearly been caught, I was by the boy's bed, not Harry's….everyone thinks I'm out to get Harry. I'm not…I just wanted that damn rat…I wanted to commit the murder I was imprisoned for…" Sirius said, trying to keep his voice even, which was proving to be quite difficult, as his temper was rising again at the memory of Peter.

"I came face to face with him yesterday evening," Sirius continued, "Only thing, that boy was holding him, so I dragged him down the Whomping Willow with me. I had no intention of hurting the boy though. Harry and his other friend came after me, trying to save the boy"—

"Ron Weasley?" Dumbledore interjected.

"Ron, yes I think that's his name." Sirius said. "Next thing I knew, Harry had attacked me, and he had his wand pointed at me. I wonder if he really would've killed me…but just at that moment Lupin came running in, and he disarmed the kids. He had realized the truth"—

"He used the marauder's map to find out?" Dumbledore asked.

Sirius looked at him puzzlingly. "How did you know?"

"Severus Snape showed the map to me…Lupin left it on his desk…"

"Well, it was another thing we pulled off during our years at Hogwarts, that we were quite proud of…"

Dumbledore nodded. "Now that you mention it I do remember hearing the word marauder associated with you and your group… And when did you create this map?" Dumbledore asked.

"Shortly after we became animagi, in our fifth year. We signed it with our nicknames. Anyway, it got confiscated in our seventh year, and somehow Lupin got a hold of it. He said he was studying the map tonight because he knew Harry and his friends would go visit Hagrid today. He said he saw my name on the map, as well as Peter's, so he knew something was up."

"Interesting…" Dumbledore said. "Well"—A knock on the door was heard, causing the two to turn their heads immediately—"enter…" Dumbledore said.

The door crept open and Professor McGonagall peeked her head inside. "Minister Fudge has just arrived, sir." She said, though she looked at Sirius with utmost revulsion. "He brings along a dementor"—

"Professor McGonagall, if you'll step inside for just a moment," Dumbledore said quickly, motioning for her to come inside the room, "Close the door please, thank you…now, Minerva, am I right in thinking that I could trust you to carry out any task that I ask you to?"

"Of course…" McGonagall said briskly, looking rather offended that Dumbledore had questioned her integrity.

"Excellent," he said, paying no heed to the looks McGonagall gave the two men, "what I need you to do is stall Fudge…I need to think of a way to get Sirius out of here"—

"I beg your pardon?" McGonagall asked sharply, throwing an angry look at Sirius.

"So you believe me?" Sirius asked, looking hopefully at his former headmaster.

Dumbledore nodded. "I do believe in your innocence, Sirius. Though it wasn't only your story that convinced me…it was your manner…"

"Er"—

"Can I trust you to carry out this task for me?" Dumbledore asked, turning to McGonagall.

"I don't understand…" McGonagall stammered.

"I'll explain the story later, but upon my word, this man is innocent and we can't let him go to the dementors. And in my past experience with the minister, I know for a fact I will be unable to convince him of the truth without evidence…Just please go and stall Fudge. Hex him while he isn't looking if you need to…" Dumbledore said quickly.

Professor McGonagall nodded and turned to leave, though she still looked rather confused. As the door shut again, Dumbledore turned to Sirius.

"I'm truly very sorry that you've had to suffer twelve years in Azkaban, and that we all believed you to be a murderer," he said quietly.

Sirius shrugged. "I probably would've been one today if Harry hadn't stepped in and protected Peter."

"I'm sorry?"

"Lupin and I explained everything to Harry, and he believed us. So we were going to kill Peter together, but then Harry stepped in and said we should take him to Azkaban instead. So that's what we were going to do…but then it was a full moon…Lupin had rushed out of his office so quickly he forgot about his potion, so he transformed into a fully fledged werewolf…we all had to get away immediately, and in the process Peter got away…"

Dumbledore sighed as he headed towards the door. "Well, Peter is now indebted to Harry for saving his life…"

"Sir, where are you going?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"We need to get you out of here, and time is short….but…" Dumbledore's facial expression changed into something thoughtful. "…of course…if we had more time…"

"Er, Dumbledore"—

But it was too late; Dumbledore had already left the office. Strange man, Dumbledore was. Great and all, but still, very strange. Sirius sighed as he took a seat behind the desk and waited.

Several minutes went by, but no one came. 'Well, better no one than a dementor…' Sirius reasoned. Just then, a loud screeching sound came from outside. Sirius quickly got up and went to the window.

"What the hell…" he murmured as he stared at the sight. Harry and his friend Hermione had appeared at his window side, on top of a hippogriff. At once, he tried opening the window, but it was locked. "damnit!" he said aloud.

Suddenly he saw Hermione pull out her wand and point it towards the window. He quickly backed away as the windows sprang open.

He stared at the two in complete amazement. How the hell did they…

But Sirius had no time to consider the matter. Within moments, the two students had helped him onto the hippogriff and urged him on. "Go!" they had yelled….he had hardly gotten a change to thank them…Sirius looked at Harry one last time as he mounted the hippogriff. He had behaved exactly as his father would have tonight…showing Peter mercy…going at any lengths to save the innocent…Harry was truly his father's son…

* * *

Remus moaned as he crawled across the forest floor. His abdomen gave away in pain in the spot Sirius had scratched him last night…Remus sighed as he rested against a nearby tree. He had gone so long without going through a complete transformation…he wasn't used to it anymore…it pained him more than ever…he rested his hand against his tattered pocket, and immediately looked down at it when he felt a large lump in it. He reached inside and pulled out Harry's invisibility cloak. Suddenly, the memories of last night came rushing back to him, and Remus quickly forgot about the pain. Sirius…what had happened to him…what had happened to Peter? Was everyone ok?

Remus slowly got up and steadied himself. The sun was already up and shining…everyone was probably up by now, eating breakfast…he needed to get back, to see Dumbledore…

But Remus looked down at his clothes as he slowly passed by Hagrid's hut. They were completely torn up from his transformation. He couldn't risk being seen in this state…he suddenly remembered James's old cloak in his hand and immediately unfolded it and threw it over himself before he continued on towards the castle…

Once inside his office, Remus quickly threw off the invisibility cloak, and put on one of his normal cloaks. He tucked the invisibility cloak away in his desk drawer and immediately made for the door, when suddenly the knob turned and a moment later, Dumbledore stood at the entrance of his office.

"Remus, I thought I'd find you here. Severus just returned from the forest and said he couldn't find you"—

"Where's Sirius?" Remus asked at once. "And Harry…what about Ron and Hermione? Are they alright? Did Peter"—

But Dumbledore held up a hand to silence him. "Let's sit down, Remus. I'll explain everything in good time."

Remus did as he was told, conjuring up an extra seat for the headmaster. As they sat across from one another, separated only by his desk, Remus waited patiently for the man to speak.

"The first thing I must say", Dumbledore finally started, "is that Sirius told me the entire story last night. He explained how Peter Pettigrew was actually the secret keeper, how he was actually still alive, in the form of a rat"—Dumbledore paused and glanced at Remus with a hint of a smile—"apparently he, Sirius and James were animagi during their years at Hogwarts. Absolutely amazing that they could have accomplished such a feat under my nose without me ever knowing…"

Remus felt himself go warm. His hand immediately went to the back of his neck, rubbing it uncomfortably. "Right…yes…they were," Remus said quietly, looking down at his desk as he spoke, "they became animagi…because…well…Sirius told you, didn't he?" he asked, finally looking up at Dumbledore as he frowned at him.

The headmaster nodded and smiled. "You were a young man, Remus. You were carried away by your youth, by your intelligence, and undoubtedly by your friends. It is the nature of an adolescent to act in that manner…I cannot hold that against you."

"I'm sorry, sir. I should've told you about Sirius…this whole year…I knew, but I didn't say anything"—

Dumbledore held up his hand again to silence Remus. "Yes, you probably should've told me. Keeping information like that from authorities…but, under the circumstances, it has obviously worked to our benefit that you kept this information from me. Had you told me earlier on in the year about Sirius being an animagus, I probably would have told Fudge, and Sirius would have been worse than dead by now…"

A smile slowly formed across Remus's face. "You mean…he's not? He's alright? He's free?" he asked in one breath, trying to keep his excitement at bay. Sirius was free…he was an innocent man…free…they'd be best friends again, just like old times…

"I'm afraid not," Dumbledore said quietly. Remus's smile fell immediately as he looked on to Dumbledore.

"What"—

"He was forced to escape," Dumbledore continued. "After your transformation last night, Peter managed to escape. And without him, dead or alive, there is no way I could convince the ministry that Sirius is innocent. Unfortunately, your word as well as the words of three thirteen year olds will not count for much in the eyes of the ministry. Snape's account of the night's events were far more convincing…"

"Snape's account?" Remus asked suddenly. "But he…he came in late! He didn't even hear everything…and well, I don't mean to belittle any colleague of mine…but you know my history with him…you know his history with Sirius…he was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of having Sirius and I taken away by dementors…"

Dumbledore nodded. "As I said before, without Peter, there's no chance of clearing Sirius's name up. He escaped though, with the help of his godson and Miss Granger. Hermione used her time turner to go back a few hours…it was actually them that helped Buckbeak escape his execution…they used the hippogriff to get to Flitwick's office, where Sirius was being kept, and he used Buckbeak to escape."

"Harry and Hermione helped him escape?" Remus repeated, looking quite impressed.

Dumbledore nodded. "And Harry…this is quite interesting, but he and Hermione were actually attacked by dementors, and Harry managed to drive them all away…According to Severus, his patronus was a stag."

"He produced a fully fledged patronus?" Remus asked, with even more surprise in his voice. He smiled broadly.

"I believe your anti dementor lessons were more successful than you thought…" Dumbledore replied with a smile.

Remus nodded. "James would have been extremely proud…"

"Yes…I don't even think he was able to perform such advanced magic so young…"

"Oh no, I meant that his son's patronus turns into his animagus…he would have been very pleased…"

Dumbledore smiled. "And so he would have. Well Remus, there's one more piece of news I need to convey to you, though I have to admit it's not the happiest bit."

Remus had just gotten up from his seat, but at the headmaster's statement he sat back down again, looking at him with concern.

"Well," Dumbledore started, "Severus, it seems, accidentally let it slip during breakfast the reason you've been absent from class once a month...in front of all the students."

Remus's eyes widened...but he couldn't say anything. They all knew…the whole school knew what he was…the students would be scared of him…their parents would be too scared to send their children to school…they all thought he was a freak…

"Now, I am just hypothesizing, but I fear there will be a great many number of complaints tomorrow morning…" Dumbledore started. "But"—

Remus shook his head. He couldn't do it anymore…no more 'special precautions', no more risking Dumbledore's neck. "I understand their worries…" Remus said quietly. "They have perfect reason to worry about their children."

And with a great sigh, Remus got up from his seat, followed by Dumbledore. "I don't want to endanger anyone. I could've easily bitten Ron, Hermione or Harry last night. And I can't let that happen."

"But Remus, if"—

But he shook his head. He couldn't let Dumbledore carry him on his back forever. He needed to stand on his own two feet. "I hate to do this, but I'm afraid I have no choice. I need to leave, Dumbledore…In the next few hours if I can manage."

Dumbledore slowly nodded in acknowledgement of his decision. "I'll have a carriage sent for you then." He replied. And without further adieu Dumbledore left the office, leaving Remus to wallow in his solitude.

An hour later, Remus had packed away all of his clothes and books—well, except one—'Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts'—was missing. Pity. He always liked that book, and he probably wouldn't see it again. Its borrower had most likely heard about his condition and was too scared to return it to him. Just then, Remus heard someone enter his classroom, which was right below his office. He quickly glanced down at the marauder's map, which he had lain out on his desk several minutes ago.

'Ok, maybe she isn't so scared after all…' Remus thought apprehensively as he tapped the map with his wand, muttering "Mischief managed."

"Nora"—he said quickly, forcing a smile at his student as she entered his office—he had been about to ask her how she was, but as he took one look at her facial expression, he realized he didn't have to. Her face was very pale, and she stood at the doorway, clutching tightly to her book, 'Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts'.

"Um…come in…" he said quietly, turning back to his packing. How could he have expected…she was only twelve…of course she was scared… "I see you've brought my book back. Did you enjoy it?" he asked.

"Well," she said in a pitch slightly higher than her normal one. "I just heard you were leaving, so I wanted to give it back to you…I didn't get a chance to finish it."

Remus turned around to see that she had only stepped a few feet into his office. He sighed. How silly of him to get so comfortable, thinking his students had respected him…liked him….they liked Remus, his humanness…

"Well, it's a very good book…why don't you keep it?" Remus offered as he began to empty out his desk drawers.

"Oh…" Nora said shakily. "No…no, that's ok"—

"I insist," Remus replied. "I don't have much use for it anyway."

"Well…thank you, sir…" she said in a timid voice. She turned on her heel to leave, obviously wanting to get out of his sight—

"By the way, how's your aunt?" he asked suddenly.

Nora turned around, looking a bit startled. "She's well." She replied. "She says hello."

Remus nodded and forced a small smile. Perhaps it was best if he finished packing and left as soon as possible…

"Well…thanks Professor Lupin, for the book…and everything…" Nora said quietly, who also seemed to be forcing a small smile, but failing miserably…she looked genuinely petrified…

"No problem," Remus replied. "Take care…" And witch a heavy sigh, Remus watched as Nora turned on her heel for the second time to leave.

* * *

_15 June 1993_

_Padfoot,_

_While no news is good news, I must confess my surprise in not receiving a single letter from you these past few days; you're usually quite good at marauding about, I figured you wouldn't have any trouble stealing parchment and quills from some poor unsuspecting target. Well, I suppose your lack of inclination to prowl should be taken as a good sign…_

_From what I hear, your parents' home is now vacant (save Kreacher…I hear house elves have very long life expectancies), so you could always go back there. Then again, seeing as how you're probably making a face right now, and making mental notes as to how you'd insult me when you get the chance, I do have another suggestion. I have an extra room in my cottage that you are more than welcome to take. Being as pigheaded as you are, I'm assuming you won't take up on my offer. Nonetheless, I'd really like to have you over sometime—you don't have to risk sending me word—just surprise me. If I'm not home (which will be unlikely considering my current state of unemployment), feel free to break in; I'm sure you'll have no trouble with that. I hope to see you in sometime._

_Moony _

_P.S. use the address on the envelope._

Sirius quickly folded up Remus's letter and tucked it away in his tattered robes and immediately returned to his dog state, continuing his walk in the forest. He had been very glad to hear from Remus…so lonely all these days with nothing to do except getting away as far as possible from Hogwarts, allowing himself to be spotted only once so as to get the dementors away from the vicinity of the school.

As he neared the edge of the forest, Sirius was able to see many houses in the distance. So he must've reached some small town or neighborhood…excellent…

'Time for a little marauding…' he thought, grinning broadly.

He was quite keen on responding to Remus's letter…he had wanted to write him earlier, but the last time he had snuck into someone's house, he only had enough time to write one letter—to Harry.

As he neared the town, he saw something that made him quicken his pace—school children…

He was so hungry…they were the perfect prey…he barked happily as he trotted over towards the children—they were having their lunch on the benches outside the school. His reaction was just as he had hoped. Several children squealed with delight at the sight of him.

"Look at him Tasha!" A small girl said, tugging the sleeve of the girl next to her. "He's a big doggy!"

The young girl's exclamation drew the attention of several more students, and within seconds, Sirius was encircled by a large group of children, many of whom were trying to pet him.

Sirius barked happily at the attention, but quickly squeezed through a small gap between two students, and headed towards the abandoned lunch bench. The children quickly followed—several students grabbed their lunches out of his reach, but several others excitedly broke off bits of their sandwiches and dangled them in the air for Sirius, which he very enthusiastically took. When it seemed as they had finished giving away their lunches, and were only looking onto him for entertainment, Sirius decided it was time to go. He barked once more, did a fancy jump in the air and took off, leaving behind a confused group of students.

His stomach no longer rumbling, Sirius headed down the street and quickly came upon a quaint looking neighborhood…and almost immediately, he saw what he was looking for: an elderly looking couple had just stepped out of their house across the street. They walked hand in hand and were talking pleasantly to each other. As they turned the corner of the street and disappeared in the distance, Sirius headed towards their house. Thinking that neighbors or passerby might notice him, he headed towards the back, and to his luck, found a back door. He tried it with his paw, but it wouldn't open. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, Sirius transformed into his human form and quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a hairpin. He had stolen it several months ago from a woman who had let him into her home to feed him. It had come in quite handy, allowing him to break into several other homes—very good of muggles, developing a technique like this…

After a few moments of tinkering, the door clicked and Sirius allowed himself in, taking his dog form as he entered, just in case anyone else was in the house. Fortunately, no one seemed to be home. Sirius immediately transformed back to a human and headed for one of the bedrooms, and went to the desk. To his surprise though, he found no muggle lined paper, or pencils or pens. Instead, he found several rolls of blank parchment tucked inside one of the desk drawers, alongside with a bottle of ink and a quill.

So they weren't muggles…interesting…Sirius sat down at the desk and had reached over for the quill and ink bottle, when suddenly an idea came to him…

Sirius raced over to the living room, and howled with joy. There was a large fireplace, and on top of the mantle, next to all the vases, sat a large glass bowl that was filled with powder. He immediately recognized it to be floo powder. He quickly grabbed a handful and jumped into the fireplace. He smiled broadly as he recited Remus's address and dropped the powder…imagining the look on Moony's face when he arrived in his fireplace…

Kierra hurtled over her mess of suitcases in her living room as she raced to answer the door.

"Pierre, Bonjour!" Kierra said excitedly as she opened the door to her friend. She pulled him inside and pecked a kiss on each of his cheeks while he did the same to her. "Come in! I'm just about ready…"

Pierre followed his friend through the living room, careful not to trip over the luggage that lay strewn across the floor. "Kierra, you do know zat zis trip iz only two weeks! You don't need so much luggage…" he said.

"Well I expect to do a lot of shopping, Pierre…I've never been to Egypt, you know…and I have a brother, a sister-in-law, a niece, and several friends and colleagues to buy souvenirs for…and then there's myself…"

Pierre only shook his head. "We will be working ze entire time, or going to ze lectures…we will not 'ave time for shopping…and what are we still doing 'Ere? We need to leave!"

"My mail just came," Kierra replied, pulling a knut out of her pocket and dropping it in the delivery owl's pouch. "Oooh, look! Nora wrote me! Gimme a second Pierre, I want to read this!" she said as she took a seat at the kitchen table.

Pierre groaned. "We will never make it to ze excavation in time…"

"Stop whining, Pierre…" Kierra muttered as she tore open her niece's letter and unfolded the parchment. She was surprised that it wasn't nearly as long as her usual letters, but shrugged it off as she began to read:

_14 June 1993_

_Dear Kierra,_

_I hope you get this letter before you leave for Egypt! School is out at last, and I've survived another year at Hogwarts. I'm really looking forward to next year, as we'll be getting to take a whole bunch of new classes. I signed up to take a few new subjects—ancient runes, care of magical creatures, and divination, though I have to say I'm not looking forward to divination. I heard from my friend Ginny, whose brother just finished his first year of divination, that all he ever does is complain about how horrible the professor is. Her name's Trelawney, I've seen her once…she looks weird. _

_Anyway, mum told me she wrote you the day I came back, telling you about the whole thing with Sirius Black…how he ACTUALLY came to Hogwarts again, and they caught him…but then he got away…again. Can you believe it? Hogwarts is supposed to be really safe and have lots of protections. I wonder how he got out… Anyway, the main reason I'm writing is about Professor Lupin…I couldn't believe this…but, a couple days before we were due to leave, it leaked out that Professor Lupin is actually a werewolf! Can you believe it? Professor Lupin…a werewolf…all this time… It was such a shock, Kierra…I mean, he's always been so nice, and I know you used to know him and everything, but you never said anything about him being one so I was assuming you didn't know…Fortunately, he's leaving. Everyone says he resigned, but a few people are saying that he got sacked…it's kind of hard to imagine Dumbledore firing someone for being a half-breed…but if he did, I think he was right to…Anyway, I'll bet he did it because we so angry at Professor Lupin for hiding something like that. I mean, he could've killed one of us! I don't get why they didn't check on him…I mean, isn't there a werewolf registry or something? Anyway, I need to go now…mum wants me to get started a little on my summer homework. Which reminds me, Professor Lupin lent me a book a while ago, and when I found out about his werewolf thing, I tried returning it to him…but when I told him I hadn't finished it, he told me to keep it…I should go figure out what I'm supposed to do with it…maybe I should just go leave it somewhere in some shop in Diagon Alley…Well, anyway…I hope you enjoy your trip, and that I hear from you soon!_

_Love,_

_Nora _

Kierra stared down at the letter from her niece. How could she…they were related! How could someone related to her talk like that?

"Kierra!" came Pierre's voice from outside the kitchen.

"What!"

"Come outside right now or I vill leave wit' out you!"

"Five minutes Pierre! Let me respond to my niece!" Kierra shouted.

"C'est impossible! Kierra"—

"FIVE MINUTES PIERRE! IT'S IMPORTANT!"

Kierra quickly grabbed a bit of parchment from one of the drawers in the kitchen and immediately set to work. Within a few minutes, she had already composed her response. She quickly glanced over it to make sure it didn't sound too harsh:

_17 June 1997_

_Dear Nora,_

_I did hear about Sirius Black from your parents—it was quite surprising news to hear and I wonder too how he managed to escape once again. I'm actually about to leave for Egypt in a few minutes—Pierre is waiting here, getting increasingly impatient with me, so let me be quick: I was very surprised at the story about Lupin. Not about him being a werewolf—I already knew he was one. Yes, I knew he was a werewolf….yes, I knowingly dated a werewolf. The point is that he was a great guy and didn't deserve to be abandoned simply for a condition that only physically changes him once a month. I never told you about it because I figured it wasn't your business—no offense or anything. He obviously didn't want his students to know, and he had good reason. If most overage wizards are too stupid to see past the whole werewolf-phobia, chances are most kids are too. If I know Lupin, he probably resigned. I doubt he could've done anything horrible enough that'd make Dumbledore fire him. And being a werewolf isn't one of them, considering that Dumbledore knew about it since Lupin was a boy at Hogwarts. You, and many others might think Dumbledore's off his rocker for hiring a werewolf, but I think that was nice of him…I imagine Remus has a bit of difficulty finding regular work because of his condition. What else…oh, yea…Nora, please refrain from using the word 'half-breed', at least for werewolves. They're not half-breeds, no matter what books say about it. They're not 'bred' to be wolves…they get bitten and then are cursed with lycanthropy for the rest of their lives. _

_Judging from the sounds of doors slamming, I think Pierre is ready to leave without me, so I'll end here. Send my love to your parents._

_Love,_

_Kierra_

_P.S. Hopefully you'll change your mind about leaving Remus's book lying around in Diagon Alley._

Deciding it wasn't too harsh, Kierra quickly folded up the letter and sealed it magically. She beckoned her owl and handed him the letter after scribbling Nora's name on the envelope.

"Kierra! I am leaving zis instant!"

Kierra rolled her eyes as she headed out of the kitchen. "I'm coming!"

Remus shut his book and placed it on the coffee table. As he headed to the kitchen, he rubbed his eyes tiredly. It was amazing how much a person could read in one day when one had no obligations…

As Remus wandered into the kitchen, he glanced at his half-empty cupboards. He should probably go shopping again soon…How he hated the thought. It wasn't that he was completely broke—he was careful to save his income from his job at Hogwarts, and had managed to save up quite a bit through the year—but his savings were slowly beginning to drain, and it worried him since he had only been out of work for about a week. For how long would he have to stretch his money? He would have to start looking for work again…perhaps a few muggle jobs here and there if necessary, which he wasn't keen on doing, as muggle pounds never converted into many galleons…

He pulled out a heavy cauldron and filled it with water. He set it on the stove and reached in the cupboard for a box of pasta. One cup should do it…

How he hated being alone all the time…Remus wondered as he measured out an appropriate serving of pasta, what had become of Dominique. They hadn't spoken in almost two months. He had written her a month before, but she didn't respond. He wrote her again last week, to tell her briefly about Sirius's innocence and asking her to keep secrecy, even though he knew Dumbledore had written to her, telling her the same thing. And yet again, no response. He wondered whether or not it was a bad idea to let Dominique go like that…maybe he should've let her kiss him…maybe he should've kissed her back…things would've been different…maybe they'd be together, and Remus wouldn't be here in his little cottage, cooking a pathetic pasta dinner for one…

Remus tried to imagine Dominique standing beside him, helping him cook an elaborate dinner…he imagined them talking and laughing…but he couldn't allow his imagination to go further than that…They were just good friends….

But two months ago Dominique had shown that she wanted more than that…or maybe she was just desperate…well, Remus certainly felt desperate at the moment. Desperately poor and lonely. Not a good combination…

Just then, an explosion from his living room made him drop his spoon in his cauldron. His eyes immediately darted towards the door that separated the two room. Wondering who had come, Remus quickly began to fish for his fallen spoon. But the next thing he heard made him abandon his spoon altogether.

"OY, MOONY! WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU, MATE!" a hoarse voice shouted from the living room.


	43. Chapter 44: A Bittersweet Symphony

_A/N: So, I've been thinking about what I'm going to do after this fic…to make it plain, let me list my current options. I plan to do all of them eventually, it's just a matter of which should get priority:_

_"Property of R.J. Lupin"; (also a chapter name you'll see later in this fic!) a story about lupin, as told by lupin, most likely in the form of a journal._

_"Alternate Life"- finishing it up. Ive had 2 chaps up for a while now..I'm not particularly motivated to finish it..lol_

_Sequel to "Last Mile". So, I'd delete "Long Lost Love", and start afresh, b/c I don't like LLL anyway..lol it would carry on from LM, and wouldn't have the plot that LLL did, and would have a different mood; b/c the 2nd war would've been going in this fic..unlike LLL, this WONT be from Harry's POV, though he'd probably appear in it from time to time. I like this idea b/c I love writing K D, and would miss'em terribly..lol and also b/c I've got a few plots up my sleeve ;) downside: I'm afraid of exhausting the OCs…too much of nething, u know..and LM is already a long fic as it is…so..I'm iffy…_

_something in the style/plot of "Pride and Prejudice" lol ..Sirius has Mr. Darcy potential in my mind…but Remus can easily pull off a 19th century gentleman…_

_"The Idiot's Guide to Marauding" from the POV of another OC who's smitten w/ Sirius Black, and her goal in life is to reel him in…but does she ever? I have a complicated plot..hehe :)_

_Any other suggestions?(yes, "stop writing fics…" does count…lol)_

_…so…I would be absolutely thrilled if you left me your opinions via review…signed or anonymous, I don't care…the more opinions, the better…opinions on my next fic, opinions on this chapter…comments, criticisms (watch someone say "stop making you're a/n so long!" lol)…u get the idea…feedback is greatly appreciated! alright, well, that's all for this A/N! Time to step aside and let you read :)_

_oh yea one more thing (heh…) if you've forgotten what Kierra wrote in her letter to Nora, I suggest you go back and take a quick look to refresh your memory :)_

Chapter 44: A Bittersweet Symphony

Remus stared wide eyed at the man who stood in his living room, grinning quite broadly.

"Sirius? What are you doing"—

"I thought you invited me, Moony..." Sirius said casually as he made his way to his friend's side to shake his hand.

"I did! But I wasn't expecting you so soon...well, doesn't matter," Remus said, "Here, sit down"—he motioned for Sirius to take a seat on the couch. "Anything to drink? Water? Juice"—

"Water's fine..." Sirius said immediately as he plopped onto the couch, sending wafts of dust in the air from his clothes.

"Or maybe a bath?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow at the mess Sirius had created by sitting down. "You look worse off than when I saw you last week. Where've you been?"

"I wouldn't be getting so high and mighty if I were you," Sirius drawled, "you don't look so dapper yourself..."

"I'm not creating dust storms though..." Remus replied as he headed to the kitchen to get Sirius his water.

"You try living in the wilderness as a dog for nine months..." Sirius called after him. "Personal grooming suddenly doesn't seem as important..."

"Well, if you really prefer your present state," Remus said as he brought him a glass of water, "I suppose whatever floats your boat…"

Sirius grinned as he gulped down his water in a matter of seconds. "I'm only pulling your fucking leg, Moony. Course I want a bath. Think I'll take one now, if that's alright with you…"

"Of course…bathroom's down the hall, second door on the left. There should be a towel in there…" Remus replied, leading Sirius towards the small hallway, pointing to the bathroom door that was slightly ajar.

"Excellent." Sirius said, heading towards the door, "if I'm not out in half in hour, come and get me out—I don't want to be all prudish…"

"Right then…" Remus replied, "Oh, I should probably find you some clothes…"

"There's some pants in here," Sirius called out from the bathroom, "I'll just wear these!" And with that, the bathroom door slammed, allowing Remus to be alone again.

Sirius Black was taking a bath in his house…what a strange concept. They were friends for roughly ten years, and the following twelve years, Remus had believed him to be a traitor…to be responsible for the death of Lily and James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew…Remus had spent twelve years hating this man so much, that the sudden discovery of Sirius's innocence felt like a huge weight being lifted off Remus's shoulders …he had never been so happy to be wrong. The only snag was the sudden realization that his other friend, Peter Pettigrew, was not the brave, fallen soldier that Remus had believed him to be…

His thoughts however, were interrupted by another loud explosion from the living room.

'Who could it be now?' Remus wondered as he headed back to the living room to see who had shot out of his fireplace this time. He stopped immediately in his tracks when he saw who it was.

"Dominique!" he said with a note of surprise in his voice. She had climbed out of the fireplace, and was dusting off her lavender cloak. She looked several shades paler than when he had last seen her.

Dominique looked up and froze. For a moment neither of them spoke. Finally, Remus swallowed and forced a smile.

"Purple really doesn't suit you…" he said.

Dominique looked down at her purple cloak for only a moment, before turning back to face Remus.

"Where is he?" she asked in an almost whisper.

"Sorry?"

"S-Sirius…" she said, "I read your letter…and Dumbledore's…where is he?"

Remus sighed. "Have a seat…he's taking a much needed bath."

Dominique did as she was told, and sat right on the dusty patches that Sirius had left minutes ago on the couch, though she took no notice of the dirt. With some hesitation, Remus took a seat next to her. He noticed her right leg was shaking, causing the heel of her shoe to tap continuously against the wooden floor—it reminded Remus of the sound of a woodpecker.

"Hey, calm down…" he said, putting his hand on her thigh in order to pacify her. "Everything's alright…"

Dominique nodded as she stared intently at the floor. "I know…I'm just"—she sighed—"this is weird…"

Remus nodded in understanding. "I know…"

After a few more moments of silence, Dominique finally looked up at Remus, clearing her throat slightly.

"Um…I'm really sorry to hear about your…uh…job…" she said slowly.

Remus opened his mouth to reply, but Dominique had spoken up again. "and uh, I'm also really sorry about how I acted with you a few months ago…I never should've done what I did"—

Remus shook his head. "It's alright…you didn't mean to"—

"It's not alright," Dominique interrupted, "I made things so awkward for us…kissing you…I mean…you don't like me like that…hell, I don't like you like that…I just…I don't know…I wasn't thinking…"

Remus forced a smile. "it's ok…we all forget to do that sometimes…"

"…and then I worsened everything by taking off and ignoring your letter…I almost feel guilty for coming here, just because of Sirius…"

Remus shook his head again. "Don't feel bad. We can put all this messy business behind us, alright? Sure, you didn't talk to me for a couple of months…but you haven't seen Sirius in twelve years…and he's your husband"—But at these words, Dominique's eyes widened. Remus looked at her warily.—"D, if you even so much as get up, I will hex you." He said sternly. "I know this is all really weird…and I know it's a bit nerve-wrecking…but he'll be so happy to see you…"

"Did he mention me?" Dominque asked.

Remus shook his head. "He's hardly been here ten minutes. And our meeting at Hogwarts was really brief…we haven't had any time to really talk yet…"

"Oh gosh…" Dominique murmured. "What if he doesn't even remember me"—

"Dominique, you're being ridiculous…of course he'll remember you!" Remus interjected. "How could he forget his own wife?"

"Well…it's been a long time…he might…or what if he remembers me but doesn't want to see me?" Dominique asked worriedly. "I mean…he's been in _Azkaban_….twelve years…he's probably not the same…"

Remus pat Dominique on the shoulder as he got up to get back to making dinner and adjusting it for three people. "Though we haven't spent much time in each other's company, I think we can safely assume he's very much as he was twelve years ago…" He looked back at Dominique who still sat at the couch; her leg had begun to shake again and she looked very tense. "Just relax, D…everything will be fine…he'll come out of the bathroom and we'll all sit together for some dinner and catch up…together…" he repeated, with a look at Dominique.

Finally, with a look of resignation, Dominique nodded, and sat patiently in wait of Sirius.

Twenty minutes had passed, and Sirius was still in the bathroom. Dominique had now resolved in pacing about the living room, occasionally stopping to tidy something up, while Remus rummaged through his pantry for a bottle of wine he was sure he had kept somewhere. Just as he found the bottle and placed it on the counter, a loud howl could be heard from the bathroom.

"OH, SHIT!"—

"Sirius! What happened?" Remus shouted as he abandoned dinner and ran to the bathroom. Dominique stood up quickly at the sound, but did not follow Remus…her feet seemed to be glued to the floor.

"Sirius is that mine?" Dominique could hear Remus ask in an annoyed voice.

"No Moony, it's mine." A hoarser, more sarcastic voice said. "The dementors gave it to me as a birthday present last year…course it's yours! And what the hell, why is it so bloody sharp? I'm bleeding here!"

"Maybe because you haven't shaved in twelve years, Padfoot…" she heard Remus reply over the sound of water running from the faucet. "You're not used to it…"

"I just wasn't expecting the razor to be so damn sharp," Sirius replied, "I mean, it was all rusty looking, I thought it'd have some wear to it…but I should've known, it's yours…"

"What's that supposed to mean? I use it!"

Dominique drew in her breath as she heard Sirius laughing his familiar bark-like laugh. "Please," he said, "for what? Shaving your legs? My aunt Josephine had more facial hair than you, Moony…you just have a razor so you can feel manly…"

"Shut up Sirius, or I'll hand you to the dementors." Remus said wryly. "And go fix your cut, I don't want blood on my bathroom floor…oh and for God's sake, put those pants on…that towel is not covering enough…"

"Got it, mum!" Sirius called after his friend as the door slammed shut.

Remus made his way into the living room, but stopped when he saw Dominique. She was standing in her place, looking rather stiff.

"Er"—

"Didn't you tell him I'm here?" She asked suddenly, her eyes widening with worry. "Why didn't you tell him? He doesn't want to see me, does he?"

Remus smiled slightly as he shook his head. "Thought we'd surprise him…it'd be fun"—

"What the hell is fun about that?" Dominique asked at once. "What if"—But Dominique was cut short at the sound of the bathroom door opening.

"Never thought I'd see the day, Moony old boy….when your clothes would actually be loose on me," came a voice from down the hall, which seemed to be drawing closer by the second. "…have you gained weight? Or have I lost"—

Sirius had walked into the living room, tugging uncomfortably at the waist of his pants, but stopped shortly at the entrance.

"Dominique"—he said automatically.

"Hi…" she said in an almost whisper. Remus glanced at his friend and saw that she had gone completely rigid, looking at Sirius with mingled fear and anticipation.

Sirius stared at her unblinkingly. "I—Oh"—

Dominique had rushed towards Sirius, and throwing her arms around him, she sobbed hysterically.

Overtaken by a bit of shock, Sirius glanced down nervously at Dominique, almost afraid to touch her. But as he felt her wet face against his chest, he immediately drew her in closer, holding tight to her.

"Hey…" he said quietly, stroking her silky hair…God, he had missed the feel of it…no, he hadn't missed it…he had completely forgotten how it felt to hold a woman, to feel her warmth…how could he have missed something he had forgotten? And yet, he now clung to her, afraid that she might slip away from him…

"Oh Sirius…" Dominique murmured through her tears. "You're back…"

He ran a hand through her hair and sighed as he took in its soft scent of lavender. He was never particularly fond of that scent, but right now it was so soothing…Sirius lifted his head and pulled Dominique away slightly in order to get a better look at her. Her face was pale and covered in tears. She looked a bit weaker than he last remembered, but otherwise, she looked almost exactly the same as she did twelve years ago. She was the same beautiful Dominique...

"I'm back…" he replied softly. He looked into her teary eyes and smiled slightly. "Stop crying, D…I only escaped from Azkaban…save your tears for my death…"

Dominique let out something between a sob and a laugh as she wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry…" she sniffed. "I just…I'm happy to see you…"

Sirius's smile broadened to a large grin. "Glad to see you too…" he said. There was a moment where they simply stared into each others' eyes. Their reverie however, was interrupted by the sound Remus clearing his throat. They immediately turned away from each other to look at him.

"Er…dinner's ready, if you're interested…" he said, looking at the two with a very straight face.

"Thanks Moony…" Sirius replied. He looked over to Dominique and extended his arm out to her. She felt herself blush as she took it, and together they followed Remus to the kitchen.

* * *

Nora shut the door of her room and quickly settled herself on her bed so she could enjoy her letter from Kierra…she had been very surprised to even receive a letter from her aunt—she was supposed to be in Egypt by now…

Nora's brow furrowed as she read over her aunt's letter…Kierra _knew_ Professor Lupin was a werewolf? _Dumbledore_ knew he was a werewolf? And yet they didn't care…Kierra knowingly dated a werewolf…what was wrong with her? She wondered if her grandparents knew about their daughter…better yet, she wondered if her own parents knew about Kierra's…taste…in men. Of course they didn't, they had been also shocked to hear that Lupin was a werewolf…she wondered how they'd feel if they knew Kierra had known about his condition but not told them…

Just then a knock came from the door.

"Nora," her mother said, opening the door to peak her head in. "lunch is ready…and I need to go back to work in a bit…oh what have you got there? Letter from a friend?"

Nora climbed off her bed and followed her mom out of the room. "Yea…well, from Kierra…"

"Oh…she's already writing you from Egypt? How she gets bored so quickly…"

"No…she wrote it right before she left." Nora replied. "Hey mum?"

"Yea?" her mother said as she poured a glass of milk for her daughter.

"You and dad didn't know about Professor Lupin, did you?"

"About him being a werewolf? No, of course not…we probably wouldn't have let you go back to school if we knew what they had there…why do you ask?"

"Well…" Nora started slowly as she took a bite of her sandwich and rested it on her plate. "I mentioned the whole thing to Kierra in my last letter…and she replied saying she already knew about him…"

Nora's mother, who sat on the opposite end of the table, stopped chewing her sandwich. She swallowed with some effort and stared at her daughter. "What? Kierra knew about Lupin being a werewolf? All along?"  
"Yea…"

"She never told me or your father!" she said, furrowing her brow. "It never occurred to her to tell us? How could she keep something like that…"

"She said she didn't tell me because it was none of my business…" Nora said, frowning at her mother. "I was thinking"—

"None of your business?" Nora's mom cut in. "Who is she to tell you it's none of your business? When the man that's teaching you is a half-breed, of course it's your business! At least it's our business as parents! That was very foolish of Kierra…"

Nora continued to frown at her mother as she stared intently at her. "Kierra said not to say half-breed"—

Nora's mother sighed. "She's probably got a soft spot for Lupin…after all, she went out with him…which makes me wonder about her…going out with someone like that…she's always had an interesting taste in men, you know…dating everyone from muggles and seers, to starving artists and unpopular musicians…I've never objected to her dating those sorts"—

Nora grinned. "Mum, you hated that bass guitarist…Dave…you thought he was a complete idiot…"

"And so he was…but I didn't bug her about it…she came to her senses and dumped him…but I can't believe she's gone so far as dating a werewolf…"

"But it was a long time ago, wasn't it?" Nora asked.

"Yes, but still…Kierra hasn't changed…she's always been reckless…befriending anyone and anything that tickles her fancy…and now she probably thinks she's all righteous for standing up for Lupin…"

"I dunno, mum…" Nora said slowly. "I mean…when I think of it…Professor Lupin was pretty nice…maybe Kierra was right in her letter…maybe werewolves aren't that bad"—

"Nora, if Kierra found an attractive enough vampire, she'd tell you they weren't so bad either…you really need to learn to take your aunt's words with a grain of salt…" Nora's mother said with a frown as she got up from the table. "I should probably head to St. Mungo's now…I've got a few patients to check up on…"

"Oh, mum, before you go, can I have some money?" Nora asked quickly. "I want to buy some of my schoolbooks…"

Nora's mother raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You got out of school two weeks ago, and you already want to buy your schoolbooks?"

Nora shrugged. "Well…I kind of wanted to go to Diagon Alley anyway…thought I might as well get them while I'm there…"

"But you went there yesterday…and you haven't gotten your list yet from Hogwarts…"

"But I already know what books are going to be used for most of my classes…they never change them….and I just want to go again because I'm bored…"

"Alright…." Nora's mother replied. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small money bag. She opened it and looked in the contents briefly before handing the entire bag to her daughter. "Here, take the lot…I need to go to Gringotts after work anyway…that should be enough for some of your books as well as restocking your potions supplies…"

"Thanks mum…" Nora said with a smile. She waved goodbye and watched as her mother disapparated from the kitchen. Tucking the money bag in her pocket, Nora headed to the fireplace. Grabbing a fistful of floo powder, she climbed inside the fireplace and clearly stated, "Diagon Alley!"

* * *

"So…" Sirius started casually as the small party sat down for dinner, "Dominique…long time, no see…what have you been up for the past twelve years?"

Dominique looked up quickly at Sirius, slightly startled at being addressed so nonchalantly by him. "Er…well…" she started slowly, "I…uh…traveled a bit…um…I'm playing for the orchestra right now…violin…"

Sirius smiled amusedly. "Living the life of a muggle, are we?" he asked. Remus looked wryly at Dominique, who in turn smiled and rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Yes Remus, I remember you telling me the same thing years ago…" she said. "But no, I'm not living as a muggle…just working with them…and I really enjoy it…still get to travel quite a bit…"

Sirius looked thoughtfully at Dominique as he took a sip of wine. As he put his goblet down, his smile broadened. "If my memory serves me right, Dominique…I think you used to detest the London orchestra…or have they gotten better?"

"Oh, well…yea, they have gotten better"—Dominique said slowly—"Ow!"

Dominique and Sirius both turned to Remus; the former glaring at him, and the latter looking at him curiously. Sirius then turned his attention back to Dominique, who had reached under the table to rub her leg.

"Sorry, didn't mean to do it so hard…" Remus said quietly.

Sirius looked again from Dominique to Sirius, waiting for an explanation. Finally, Dominique sighed and looked him squarely in the eyes.

"Um…see…I'm not playing for the London Orchestra…" Dominique said slowly. "I play for the Parisian one…"

"Parisian?" Sirius repeated. "Parisian…as in Paris?"

Dominique nodded.

"Paris as in France?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows at Dominique in disbelief.

"Yea…"

"You moved back to France?" Sirius asked, the tone of his voice going slightly louder, startling Dominique.

"Er…yea…" Dominique said quietly. "And I'm kind of stuck there…I signed a contract…it'll be a few years before it expires…"

Sirius nodded slowly as he pursed his lips into a frown.

"I'm sorry…" Dominique said.

Sirius shook his head. "Don't be…you didn't foresee me coming back…anyway, I'm Britain's most wanted…I think I could risk coming out to France every now and then…"

"You're more than welcome to come back with me…" Dominique offered.

"No…I've got a responsibility towards Harry…I need to stay nearby…"

"So you'll stay here?" Remus asked.

"Well…not here, not in your house…er…no offense Moony…" Sirius said quickly. "You've got enough to worry about without having an escaped convict hiding out at your place…I'll come by a lot, of course…but I can't stay here permanently…I don't want the ministry after you too…"

"But it's safe here…I mean, we're out in the country…fairly isolated from the rest of society…wizard and muggle…" Remus argued. "I really don't mind"—

"I know you don't," Sirius cut in, "but it's also too far from Harry…"

"But so what if you're far from him?" Dominique asked. "Even if something happens…everyone knows your face…you can't come barging into Hogwarts to save him."—Dominqiue looked warily at Sirius and added—"you know that, Sirius…"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I'm an animagus…nobody knows about that at Hogwarts except for Harry and his two friends…I'd be safe…"

"Sirius, no"—

"Listen," Sirius said impatiently, cutting Remus off, "much as I love and respect you two, neither of you are responsible for me, and I'll do what I see fit. James and Lily trusted me to take care of Harry, and that's what I plan on doing. His safety is my main priority right now."

"But we care about your safety too…" Dominique persisted. "I don't want to have to see you get thrown into Azkaban again"—

"Look, I understand your concerns…" Sirius said more calmly, "but you guys don't need to worry about me. I managed to duck the dementors for a full year…I think I can stand to do it a little longer…"

Remus sighed as he got up. "No point in arguing with you, I suppose…"

Sirius shook his head and smiled. "Nope…"

"Well then…I think I'm going to retire for the night…I've only got one extra room though…I don't know how…you guys feel…" Remus said slowly, looking from Dominique to Sirius, who in turn were avoiding each other's eyes.

"There's also the couch in the living room…" Remus added when he noticed the awkwardness between the reunited couple. "I'll sleep there…one of you can take my room…but you two are welcome to stay up as long as you'd like…catch up and stuff…" And with that, Remus headed to the sink to wash the dishes, leaving the two alone at the table.

Dominique and Sirius sat in silence for several moments, every so often exchanging shy glances at each other. Finally, Sirius dared to break the silence as his eyes met Dominique's.

"You're still beautiful…" he said quietly, a small smile playing across his face. "Exactly as how I remembered you…"

Dominique blushed at his comment, causing Sirius's smile to broaden. At seeing this, Dominique let out a small laugh. "You've got the exact same smile…you look really handsome when you smile. You always have…"

"Even now?" Sirius asked.

Dominique smiled and nodded. "Yea."

A few more minutes passed in silence, and again, Sirius broke it. "Hey…do you want to catch up…maybe in the bedroom?"  
Startled, Dominique looked up quickly at Sirius, her mouth falling slightly open.

"No, no…" Sirius said quickly, "I didn't mean…no, not like that…I just meant…could we go in there? I mean…I feel bad that Remus has to sleep on the couch in his own house…we could share a room…if you're comfortable…I mean…just sleeping in it…not...you know…I mean, I don't want to do anything you're not comfortable with…I just want to catch up with you…that's all…"

Dominique's face relaxed as she smiled again. "Yea…that's fine."

Remus listened to the soft muffled voices of his two friends from the room next door as he lay in bed. He closed his eyes and sighed as he heard Sirius's familiar laughter. It was so nice to have those two back in his life…he was happy they had each other again…And yet…he wasn't. Yes, he felt guilty about it, but that didn't make him feel any more justified in his feelings…How could he not be happy for them? Why did he have to be so selfish? He was a horrible person…it was the golden rule of all religions, to want for others what he wanted for himself…and this simple rule he could not abide by…He wanted happiness for himself…the same happiness they had…the happiness that can only be experienced when sharing it with a loved one…

He thought again of the day Dominique had kissed him…Would things be different if he had kissed her back? Would Dominique be sharing a room with Sirius right now, laughing the night away, catching up with her old husband, or would she…no…Remus wouldn't dare to finish that thought. What happened had happened for the best. And Sirius and Dominique were best for each other. They loved each other. Dominique didn't love him like that. Even he himself didn't love Dominique that way… Remus sighed. Perhaps he was feeling the same desperation and frustration Dominique had felt a few months ago. Perhaps, like in her case, it would all pass, and he too would find his counterpart…someone to complete him.

* * *

Nora hurried out of the apothecary, holding tightly to her packages as she dashed through a mud puddle. She quickly reached her destination, Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. She stopped outside the door, and glanced around at the outdoor tables. She had left the book lying around only yesterday…had someone picked it up and taken it away so soon?

'Serves you right…' Nora thought glumly as she turned around and headed to Flourish and Blotts for her schoolbooks. 'Professor Lupin was so nice to you…and there you go, tossing his book away…'

Several minutes later, Nora wandered through the aisles of books in Flourish and Blotts. She had found most of her necessary books for school, and upon realizing she would have several extra galleons left for her own personal spending, Nora spent the rest of her time browsing. Towards the back of the store, Nora found a large cart, bearing a sign that read "Discounted Books". Placing her schoolbooks on a nearby stool, Nora knelt over and began scanning the cart, hoping she'd find something of her interest. Within a few minutes, Nora had scanned the entire cart, unable to find anything interesting. As she stood back up though, a dark brown sleeve that peaked from the back of the cart caught her eye. It was a medium sized book, fairly thick…She immediately knelt down again and picked it up. The title read "Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts". As Nora opened the book, her eyes immediately fell to the bottom left hand corner of the inside front cover. And there it was, in faded, slightly smeared ink, written in elegant cursive: 'Remus Lupin.'

"Finding everything alright?" came a voice from behind her. Nora turned around to find the store owner smiling at her. She smiled back.

"Yes, thank you…actually can I pay now?" Nora asked.

"Of course…these'll be your books ma'am?" the wizard asked, pointing at the stack of books on the stool.

"Yea…"

The store owner picked up the stack and led Nora to the front of the store, to the main counter. "And will you be wanting that book as well?" he asked, indicating at the book in her arms. "Good price for an excellent book…only seven galleons!"

"Seven?" Nora asked. "I thought the discounted books were supposed to be cheap…"

"They are," the owner replied, "Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts…that's a valuable book…our newer copies are sold at twelve galleons…"

"Where'd you get this copy?" Nora asked suddenly.

The owner shrugged. "Found it laying around at Florean's…nobody claimed it so I thought I'd take it…why, it wasn't yours, was it?"

"Er…no…" Nora said slowly. "No, it wasn't…but I'd like to buy it…" and with that, the shopkeeper rung up Nora's total, paying no attention to the relieved smile that crept from Nora's mouth.


	44. Chapter 45: Breakfast at Moony's

_A/N: I apologize that things are moving kind of slowly right now…but I promise, once we get into OotP timing, things will pick up (we're almost there!) I just hate jumping years…I like to try avoiding it when I can…so think of this as a sort of transitioning chapter, er something…lol_

Chapter 46: Breakfast at Moony's

Remus groaned as he opened his eyes, and quickly shut them again upon being blinded by the morning sunlight that poured through the window of his room. He curled his legs up to his chest and pulled the covers over his head… Unemployment did not do him good… At one time being quite the morning person, Remus had now become slightly lazy and grown quite accustomed to sleeping in…

He had had a strange dream last night…He had been back at the bistro in Hogsmeade with Dominique...she had been crying...but she had been wiping her eyes with leaves of lettuce instead of tissue. He couldn't remember why she was crying…something to do with Severus Snape…she was mad at him…and at Sirius…but why she was upset with them completely escaped Remus's memory. Suddenly the remembrance of Dominique and Sirius forced Remus to sit up in his bed… They were still here, in his home. 'Probably still in bed…' Remus thought to himself as he got up… They had been fairly bashful with each other the night before, but if he knew them both, he was confident that the shyness had melted away within minutes…

As Remus tied his robe at his waist and headed out of his room, he saw that the guest room's door was slightly ajar. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should attempt to get them up, but thought better of it and continued on his way to the kitchen. As he entered the kitchen, Remus stopped short as he took in the sight. The table was already set for three, and a plate stacked with toast, as well as a pitcher of orange juice was already on the table. Remus blinked a few times as he turned his attention to Sirius and Dominique, who were standing over the stove, frying eggs and talking pleasantly to each other about the lovely summer weather that had graced the southern counties during the past week.

"Er"—

"Morning!" Sirius and Dominique said in a cheerful unison to their friend.

Remus smiled tiredly. "Good morning…I take it you two slept well then?"

Sirius grinned as he brought the pan of eggs to the table. "You bet…yourself?"

"Oh…yea…like a log…" Remus replied as he took a seat next to Dominique at the table. "You guys didn't have to make breakfast"—

"Well," Dominique cut in as she began to butter a slice of toast, "we woke up a couple of hours ago…and we didn't have the heart to wake you up. Well, I didn't anyway…" she added, throwing a glance at Sirius, who in return only grinned.

"I thought it'd be fun to stick your hand in a bowl of warm water…to see if that thing was true…" Sirius said.

"What thing?" Remus asked.

Sirius laughed. "You know…it's some muggle prank I think…dipping a person's hand in a bowl of warm water while they're asleep…it's supposed to make the person pee…"

Remus rolled his eyes, but laughed. "You'd think you'd mature a little in thirteen years…"

Just then, a snowy white owl flew in through the open window, dropping a letter onto the table.

"Wow…" Dominique murmured as stared at the beautiful owl in awe.

"That's Harry's owl, I think…" Remus said, picking the letter up and opening it. "Er…Sirius, it's for you…"

"Really?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise. He took the letter from Remus and began to read it.

"Everything alright with him?" Dominique asked. Sirius grinned and nodded, though he didn't look up from his letter.

"He's got the Dursleys terrified…" Sirius said. "I guess he forgot to tell his aunt and uncle that I'm innocent…"

Sirius continued to read his letter, and almost immediately, the smile fell off his face.

"What's wrong?" Lupin asked, noticing the frown that had overtaken Sirius's countenance.

"He says his scar hurt this morning…says last time it happened it was because Voldemort was at Hogwarts…" Sirius said, finally looking away from Harry's letter to see Dominique and Remus. "I need to go back…" he said.

"What? Where? To Hogwarts?" Dominique asked.

Sirius shook his head. "I just want to go further north…be closer to Harry…just in case…"

"But Sirius"—

"I'm his godfather," Sirius said, cutting Remus off, "he's my responsibility…"

"…But if you get caught…" Remus persisted.

"…no one's going to catch me," Sirius said coolly, "Harry and his friends, and Dumbledore of course, are the only ones in that area who know that I'm an animagus…I'll be fine…you got some quill and parchment? I want to write Harry back really quick…"

Remus nodded and got up. "You're not leaving now, are you?" he asked.

"No, not just yet…maybe tomorrow or the day after, I'll leave…if that's alright with you, Moony…" Sirius said when Remus came back into the kitchen with quill and a roll of parchment for Sirius.

"Of course it's alright…" Remus replied. "You know you're more than welcome to stay for as long as you'd like….and what about you, D? When do you need to leave?" he asked, turning to Dominique.

"Well...I've got to be back in Paris day after tomorrow, on Monday…we've got a rehearsal…we'll be performing in Aveyron…so I'll probably leave the same time as Sirius…"

Remus nodded, but vaguely heard what Dominique said next. Her sudden reference to France made him think back…Nora never mentioned what city…

"Hey, Dominique…" Remus said suddenly. Dominique and Sirius turned to look up at Remus, looking at him expectantly, wondering what could have made him interrupt their conversation.

"I was wondering," Remus started slowly, now wondering if it wasn't such a good idea to bring it up after all, "Do you remember Kierra? Kierra Nakofsky?"

Dominique grinned broadly. "Of course I remember her!" she said. "How could I forget her? She was quite a character…"

Remus let out a small laugh. "Yes, she was, wasn't she? Well…I just remembered…with you mentioning France…her niece was actually one of my students"—

"Wait, hold on…" Sirius said abruptly. "Who's Kierra? Did I ever know her?"

Dominique looked at Sirius incredulously. "How could you not remember her?" she asked. "She was one of my best friends! Remember? I got into a fight with her because she dumped Remus when she moved to the States"—

"Oooh…she went out with Moony? Same year as us, right?"

"Wait…you guys stopped talking because of me?" Remus asked. He vaguely remembered Dominique's grudge against Kierra many years ago…she had stopped talking to her, but never explained why…He couldn't believe this…he had been the reason for a broken friendship?

Dominique looked down guiltily at her empty goblet. "Well…" she said slowly, careful not to look Remus in the eyes, "yea…kind of…I mean, I didn't mean to…it just sort of came out…"

"Er, what came out?" Sirius asked.

"I was annoyed with her for breaking up with Remus like that…and I guess she picked up on my annoyance in my letters…and well…we sort of fought over it…I mean, I do feel bad about it now…I mean, I guess she had some justification in being mad at Remus…"

"Wait…now you've lost me…" Remus said. "She was mad at me when we broke up?"

"Yea, well, remember, you had helped her move? And you slept with her…and then left her"—

Dominique was interrupted by Sirius's laughter. "I'm suddenly remembering all of this now…Kierra…fellow Gryffindor…bit of a tart…"

"Sirius!" Dominique snapped.

"What? She was, wasn't she?"

"I can't believe you broke your friendship with her because of me, Dominique…" Remus said, rubbing his right temple wearily. "That was stupid…"

"That was a long time ago!" Dominique protested. "I don't hate her anymore, obviously…so…why'd you bring her up anyway?"

"Oh…well…you mentioned France…" Remus said, "it just reminded me…her niece was actually one of my students…she told me Kierra's living in France now…"

"Really?" Dominique asked. "Where? In Paris?"

"No idea…she didn't say…she just said she's teaching now…not at Beauxbatons though…some wizarding university or something…but I just thought…maybe you should get in touch with her, since she's in the same country as you now…"

"Yea…maybe I'll drop her a line…" Dominique said thoughtfully, and then added, "…but I don't know what I'd say to her…I mean, we haven't talked in years…"

"Why don't you write her, Moony?" Sirius asked innocently. "I mean, you've got the time… get yourself a little pen pal…"

"well"—

"…maybe get yourself a little laid…"

"What?" Remus asked incredulously. Sirius and Dominique fell into laughter, and doubled over as Remus's cheeks flushed. "I'm not interested…in that," he stammered, "I don't even care to correspond with her…I just thought I'd mention it to you D…in case you were interested…you were friends with her…"

"Yes, but you used to shag her…" Sirius said coolly.

"It was a long time ago…and why are you all of a sudden so shag-happy today?" Remus asked, but almost immediately added, "Please don't answer me…"

Sirius smiled contently as he folded up his reply to Harry and gave it to Hedwig. "Whatever you say, Moony…"

* * *

Kierra shivered as she waited at the front door. Christmas seemed to be getting colder every year in London…God, what was taking them so long to answer the damn door? But just as Kierra pulled her wand out to charm the doorbell again, the door swung open.

"Harvey!" Kierra exclaimed happily, immediately letting herself into the warm house and throwing her arms around her brother.

"Please, come in!" Harvey said with a mix of sarcasm and humour. "How are you? No trouble getting here, I hope?"

"Absolutely none—Janine! Nora!" Kierra squealed as she ran passed her brother to hug her sister-in-law and niece. The three ladies exchanged hugs and squeals, and when they finally pulled away from each other, Kierra studied her sister-in-law's face. She looked a bit different…more fresh-faced, more youthful…  
"You look good, Janine!" Kierra said with a grin, "I mean…even better than you usually look…" she added quickly.

Janine blushed and smiled shyly in response. "Thanks…well…you know…life's been good lately…"

"Really?" Kierra asked, raising an eyebrow at Janine, looking at her slyly. "How so?"

Janine shook her head as she led the small party to the kitchen. "Nevermind….I'll tell you later…"

"Later, when I'm in bed?" Nora asked. "It's not fair, mum…I never get to know anything…"

"Please, Nora…it's nothing like that…I'll tell you all in good time…" Janine said, "but first I want to know how Kierra's doing…"

Kierra laughed. "I'm fine…it's always the same…nothing happening at work…but the next term is starting after the holidays so I did bring some of my work with me…I need to prepare my lessons and stuff…that's about it…"

"So the teaching bit is going alright then?" Harvey asked as he headed to the stove to help his wife prepare dinner.

Kierra shrugged as she took a seat at the kitchen table next to Nora. "Yea…it's gotten a little dull since Edmund left…"

"Oooh…how's he?" Nora asked excitedly.

Kierra grinned. "He's alright…currently enjoying his current job at Beauxbatons…"

"Wish he could teach potions at our school…I bet he's loads better than Snape..." Nora said glumly, "I hate Snape…"

"You know," Janine started, "potions wouldn't be half as bad if you at least attempted to enjoy it…"

"Aw, cut her some slack, Janine…" Kierra cut in, "you don't know Snape…he's probably the last person you'd want teaching you a class like potions…he's positively brilliant…I mean, he really knows his stuff, but then, he's all arrogant about it…thinks that anyone who's not at his level is an absolute troll…"

Janine sighed and made no reply to this, and instead turned her attention back to the cauldrons on the stove.

Kierra grinned at this and turned back to Nora. "So, how's school going? Who's your new defense against the dark arts professor? Is he as sexy as professor Lupin?" Kierra added, throwing a wink at Nora.

"No"—Nora mumbled—"I mean"—she stammered quickly—"no, our new professor isn't attractive…but that doesn't mean…I never thought…I never liked professor Lupin!"

Kierra laughed as she watched Nora turn a deep shade of red.

"Stop laughing!"

"I'm sorry!" Kierra laughed. "I couldn't help it! But wait…" she said, as her laughter subsided, you're over his whole werewolf thing, aren't you? I mean…you don't care, do you?"

Nora shook her head. "No…I felt kind of bad about it after that one letter you sent me in the summer time…"

Kierra nodded and turned to her brother and his wife. "And what about you two?" she asked. "I hope you guys are over it…"

Harvey sighed as he joined them at the table. "Nora had a long talk with us," he said, casting a glance at his daughter, "seems as though your spirit was channeling through her…and alright, to be honest…we're still a little wary"—

"Ah geez, Harvey!" Kierra said exasperatedly. "There's nothing wrong with Lupin! I dated him, remember? He was a really sweet guy! And from what Nora told us of him, I think he still is! Cut him some slack…it's not his fault he was bitten when he was little…"

"He got bitten when he was little?" Nora asked. She had a distressed look on her face. "How old was he?"

Kierra shrugged. "Five, I think…"

Nora frowned. "That's so young…that's terrible…"

"Yea…but he still turned out great…" Kierra said, "and even though I don't know any other werewolves, I'm sure they also lead normal lives…"

"Hold on…" Harvey said, in a slightly annoyed tone. "You never let me finish…I said we were wary…just because…you know, how they do become a danger and a threat once a month…but I understand where you're coming from, Kierra…I don't think any less of him, or anyone else for having lycanthropy."

"Oh…" Kierra said. "Well…good…"

There was a moment of silence amongst the group, where the only sound that could be heard was cauldrons bubbling at the stove.

"So…uh…you asked me about my professor…" Nora said slowly, trying to break the silence. "He's really cool…a weird old guy, but very cool…his name's Moody…I hear some people call him Mad-Eye though…cuz he has this magical eye"—

"Moody?" Kierra asked. "Mad-Eye Moody?"

"Er yea…oh. Don't tell me you dated him too!" Nora said, making a face. "That's so gross"—

"No, of course not!" Kierra snapped. "That's just sick…but I know him! Well, knew…he's an auror…"

"Yea, that's what I heard…but Dumbledore got him out of retirement…he seems kind of crazy…always saying 'Constant vigilance!'" Nora replied, screwing up her face to imitate Moody's scowl.

Kierra laughed. "So he still says that!"

"How'd you know him, Kierra, if you didn't date him?" Janine asked, smiling wryly at Kierra.

"Oh, ha ha…" Kierra said sarcastically. "you guys are too funny…"

"We still love you…" Janine replied innocently.

Kierra sighed and grinned at them. "Yea…bet you do…well, you guys remember after I graduated from Hogwarts, I had qualified to become an auror…" she said, turning to Janine and Harvey, who nodded.

"You were an auror, Kierra?" Nora asked excitedly. "No way! So you fought against You-know-who and his death eaters?"

Kierra shook her head. "I said I only qualified…my parents were so pleased…so even though I wasn't really interested in becoming one, I went for it anyway…plus a bunch of my friends were training too, so I thought, why not?"

"Anyway," she continued, "Moody was our mentor…he was definitely very cool…though I didn't realize it then…I thought he was completely mad at the time…" Kierra laughed.

"So how come you didn't become an auror?" Nora asked.

"Well…" Kierra said slowly, now feeling awkward. She did not want to tell her niece that she had not only witnessed, but indirectly caused the deaths of two children…she had never forgotten that night …she remembered the girl's name was Kelly…she remembered being yelled at, feeling worthless in front of all the other aurors, crying the night away in Remus Lupin's arms…it still gave her nightmares at times…

"Um…" she tried again, clearing her throat, "Well, it just didn't work out…I was out of it in a few weeks…and soon after, I found that job in the states…and you know how it went from there…"

Nora nodded, but remained silent, sensing some discomfort from her aunt. "Well, he's definitely a really good teacher. It's actually kind of hard to say who's better; him or professor Lupin…"

"Bet I know who you you'd rather have detention with though!" Kierra said, grinning mischievously.

Nora blushed. Oh, if only her parents weren't around…she'd tell Kierra to piss off…Fortunately, her mother seemed to be on the same wavelengths as her…

"Kierra!" Janine snapped.

"What?" Kierra asked innocently. "She's thirteen you know…"

"I'm well aware of that…" Janine replied. "But you're her aunt…you should set a better example for her…"

"Why? We only see each other a couple times a year…" Kierra replied coolly, exchanging a smirk with Nora, who had rolled her eyes at the lip Kierra was giving her mother.

"You have no sense of propriety, Kierra…you know that right?" Harvey said casually as he got up to help his wife bring the dinner to the table.

"So…do you talk to Edmund a lot?" Janine asked over dinner.

"Not as often as we'd like…" Kierra replied as she took a sip of wine from her goblet. "but we usually floo over to each other's places every few days…"

"Is he going to move back to Aveyron anytime soon?" Nora asked. "And is he ever going to visit London? I want to meet him!"

Kierra smiled. "I'm not sure about London…but he's going to move back to Averyron next year…he got a job offer at a hospital…"

Janine nodded. "Of course…hospitals always need potion brewers…we're always short of them at St. Mungo's…"

"Well, that's great that Edmund will be back in town for you…" Harvey said, setting down his own goblet of wine.

Kierra grinned. "Yea…everyone I know is glad about it…they all really like him…well, except Pierre…he hates Edmund…well, you know…I told you guys all about Pierre…he's such a sweet friend…likes to pretend he doesn't care two straws for me, but then goes around and gets completely defensive if any guy even comes near me…never approves of anyone I've dated…"

"I liked Pierre…" Janine said as she took a sip of her water, "you should've gone for him…"

Kierra laughed. "God, no…we're just friends…we can't be more than that…anyway, I'm trying to convince Pierre to come out…"

"Come out?" Nora asked. "Of what?"

"He's gay?" Harvey asked.

Kierra laughed again. "No…I'm not sure…but he's just so posh and…prissy…most people think he is…he's not married, and hardly dates…so I wonder too sometimes…but regardless, we're not each others' types…we just like to annoy each other silly…"

"That's how your brother and I started…" Janine commented, sharing a smile with her husband while Kierra and Nora giggled. "Oh shut up you two…." She said, reaching for her glass again. "Oh…I'm out…"

"Here have some wine…there's some left…" Kierra said, leaning forward to pour Janine some wine. Janine however, pulled her goblet away from Kierra and shook her head.

"Er…no, that's alright…"

"Why not? You like this kind…" Kierra said. "Why are you drinking water anyway? You usually have wine with your dinner…"

Janine glanced nervously at her husband, who in turn sank his head slightly. "Let's just tell them…" he said, looking shortly at his wife, giving her a nervous smile.

"Tell us what?" Nora asked.

Kierra's jaw however, dropped. "Oh my gosh…Janine…are you…"

Janine smiled slightly. "Nora…Kierra….I…uh…well, I'm pregnant…"

Kierra squealed. "Aw…you guys!" she said excitedly, getting up and running around the table to hug the couple.

Nora on the other hand, stared at her mother with disbelief. "You're having a baby?" she asked.

Her mother nodded. "I'm sorry we didn't say anything earlier…we only found out a few days ago…and so we figured we'd tell you when Kierra arrived, so you guys could find out together…"

Nora nodded. "So…you're pregnant…." She said, "so…I'm gonna have a baby brother? Or sister?"

Janine nodded. "You don't look particularly happy, dear…"

Nora smiled. "No, I am…really…I'm just…surprised, that's all…" Nora said quickly. "Never was expecting this…"

"Oh you guys, this is so great!" Kierra gushed. "so you said you found out a few days ago…do you know how far along you are?"

Janine nodded. "Only a few weeks…so…the baby will be born sometime in September next year…"

"Wait…so I'll be fourteen by then…" Nora said, frowning. "A fourteen year age difference…"

"Oh that's not too bad…" Kierra said. "You know Pierre? He's 38…his younger brother is 12…how about that for an age difference?"

"Wow…that's a pretty big gap…how'd that happen?" Nora asked.

"Same way this one probably happened…" Kierra said, patting Janine's stomach. "Ow! I was just kidding!" Kierra said, scowling at Janine, who had just slapped her hand very hard.

* * *

"Tis the season to be jolly!" Sirius sung loudly as he waltzed into Remus's living room with one arm around Dominique (who looked slightly frazzled) and a half empty bottle of champagne in the other. "Oy! Take it away Moony!"

Remus in turn, only rolled his eyes. "…and it's only nine o'clock in the evening…" he muttered, causing Dominique to laugh as she dropped Sirius on the couch.

"That's not how it goes, mate…" Sirius said. "you're supposed to go, fa la la la la…la la la la!"

"I don't sing, Padfoot…why don't you just uh, continue solo, mm? Remus said.

"Course you sing, Moony!" Sirius laughed. "Remember that one time…before..er…I was arrested? At my place? We were up all night singing muggle tunes from that old gramophone of yours? We sung that one shouting song…what was it.. 'The cockroaches' or something?"

Dominique laughed. "I remember that! It's 'The Beatles', Sirius…you guys were singing 'Twist and Shout'…oh, you guys were terrible…"

"My point exactly..." Remus said, taking Dominique's hand and pulling her up. "We're not very musical fellows…so, it's up to you to lead us…" he said, leading her to the rusted old piano in the corner of the living room.

Dominique sat at the bench and pressed down on several of the keys, producing a loud, unpleasant chord. Dominique winced and pulled out her wand.

"This needs serious tuning…" she muttered, pulling out her wand. "Harmonio" she said as she tapped the keys.

"Ah, that's better…" Remus said as Dominique hit the keys once more, producing a much more tuned chord.

"Alrigh'…how 'bout… a lil'…Jingle Bells?" Sirius suggested as he got up and stood behind Dominique.

"How about Silent Night?" Remus offered, glancing sideways at Sirius.

"Too sober for me…and I'm not sober enough to sing it…" Sirius replied quite seriously. "I like Jingle Bells…oh, how about Jingle Bell Rock? Now that's an upbeat tune!"

"Let's start with Silent Night…" Dominique said smiling slightly, and striking another chord, she started the song.

"…Silent night, holy night…"

Dominique glanced on either side to see Remus and Sirius standing by her, singing along. Gosh, they were terrible…Their voices were so hoarse…

"…Holy Infant so tender and mild…"

Dominique winced as Remus sang 'mild' a note too high, and Sirius a note too low…

"Radiant beams from"—

"Hey," Dominique cut in, catching the two men by surprise as she ceased to play, "Why don't we call it quits? My throat's sore…"

"It doesn't sound sore…" Sirius said, raising an eyebrow at Dominique.

"Well, it feels sore…" she said quickly.

"Doubt it," Remus said wryly, "it's probably your ears that are sore…"

"Don't be silly," Dominique said sweetly as she got up from the piano and walked passed Sirius and Remus to take a seat at the couch, "you two sang beautifully…"

"Now, now, D…old St. Nick doesn't like liars…" Sirius replied. He sauntered over to the couch and plopped down right next to Dominique. He smiled mischievously at her and added, "been a naughty little girl all year, have we?"

"I'm still in the room, you know…" Remus said.

"Oh, sorry mate…"

"It's alright…"

Sirius glanced from Dominique to Remus, who looked on to the couple a bit somberly. Sirius turned back to Dominique. "Y'know, I'm tired…let's hit the sack a little early, shall we?" he said.

"But it's only 9:30!" Dominique replied. "Oh, alright…"

"I'm actually a little tired myself." Remus said. "think I'll retire too."

"Alright, well we'll see you in the morning then." Dominique said as Sirius helped her up.

"Sure. And no sneaking downstairs to steal presents, _Padfoot_…" Remus said as he led the group to the bedrooms.

Sirius chuckled. "I stopped doing that when I was twelve…"

"Try sixteen…"

"You really have to remember every little thing, don't you, Moony?"

"You all would've been lost without my memory…"

Sirius rolled his eyes and smiled, but made no reply.

"…you know it."

"Night Moony…"

"I smell defeat…"

"…and a merry Christmas to you too!"

"Yes…acknowledging defeat Padfoot-style. Very nice Sirius…"

"Nice indeed," Dominique cut in impatiently, "Night Remus…"

"I thought you were tired…" Dominque whispered as she felt Sirius's lips brush against the side of her neck.

"I lied…"

"Oh, I see I'm not the only naughty one then…"

"You bet…"

"Sirius, we went to bed early just so we could fool around? What about Remus?"

"Oh yea…" Sirius whispered, sitting up in bed. "I forgot…that was the original reason I wanted to get away from him early."

"What do you mean?" Dominique asked, also sitting up now.

"Well…I wanted to talk to you about him." Sirius replied. "I feel kind of bad for him…you always come and visit when I visit him…so we're always together…I just don't know how that makes him feel…I mean, it seems as though he spends just as much time in solitude as I do when I'm out in hiding…"

Dominique shifted slightly in bed and sighed. "You think he's lonely?"

Sirius nodded.

"Yea, I think so too…" Dominique said. "But what can we do about it?"

Sirius shrugged. "When was the last time he went on a date? D'you know?"

Dominique thought for a moment. "I'm not sure…oh wait, I think it was sometime last year…when you had recently escaped Azkaban…I was on a world tour…yes, Remus wrote me…he mentioned some girl…it didn't last too long though. She found out he was a werewolf and dumped him…"

"Bitch wasn't worth his time then…" Sirius said, a bit savagely.

Dominique nodded. "You know, I was thinking about what you said…how we're always together here…" she said. "maybe…maybe I should hold off on coming here for a bit…so the next time you come visit him, it'll just be you two…you guys can catch up and stuff…maybe he can put you on a leash and take you for a walk…." Dominique added with a grin.

Sirius chuckled. "We've done that before…can't count the number of times the guys would take turns walking me, in hopes they'd get some girl's attention…"

Dominique laughed. "And did it ever work?"

"A few times…"

"Alright," Dominique said, "so from now on, I'll keep a little distance from Remus…let you two bond…do your…er...manly stuff together…"

Sirius laughed. "If you think we're going to sit on his porch and drink firewhiskeys and talk about quidditch, you're mistaken…"

"Oh well…whatever it is you two do when you're together…"

"Sure…"

"Sirius?"

"Mmm?"

"I'm impressed that you brought this up…you've become sensitive!" Dominique said with a grin.

"What are you talking about, D? I've always been sensitive! Sensitive is my middle name…"

"Yea…right…and I'm the minister of magic…"

"Oh, you're real funny, D…you know that?" Sirius asked as he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer to him. She let out a small laugh and pulled herself out of his grip, but almost immediately was pinned down by him.

"And now, as it is the season to be giving…I'm feeling particularly generous tonight…"

A few days later, as Sirius, Remus and Dominique sat down to breakfast, an owl tapped lightly on the kitchen window with its beak.

"Another letter from Harry…" Remus said, handing the letter over to Sirius.

"Everything alright?" Dominique asked.

"Don't know…" Sirius replied as he unfolded the letter and began to read it. "I told him to write me if anything strange happened…I told you guys how someone entered him in that triwizard tournament…"

Remus and Dominique nodded and remained silent, waiting for Sirius to finish the letter. After a minute, he finally put the parchment on the table and sighed.

"What happened?" Dominique asked.

"Well, he said when he was out in the corridors after hours, with his invisibility cloak of course, he found Snape telling Filch that someone broke into his office and he wanted him to help him investigate it…but Moody came along, course he can see through invisibility cloaks, and he saw Harry but covered for him. Snape tried to downplay the break in, saying it was probably a student stealing potion ingredients, but Moody accused him of hiding other stuff…"

"What other stuff?" Dominique asked.

Sirius shrugged. "Didn't say…except that Moody's searched Snape's office before…and that Moody took the marauder's map from Harry…wanted to borrow it…"  
"Well, I suppose it'd come in fairly useful to Moody…" Lupin commented. "Did he give a reason why though?"

Sirius looked back down at the letter. "Says he saw Crouch's name in Snape's office."

"Crouch?" Dominique and Remus said together.

Sirius nodded. "You guys saw in the paper that he's also a judge for the tournament…"

"Yea…" Lupin said. "This is all very strange…"

Sirius tore off the bottom of the parchment, that had no writing on it, and reached for the quill and bottle of ink that sat on the kitchen counter. "I need to go and see Harry…" he said as he scribbled something onto the parchment.

"What? Now?" Dominique asked.

"Yea…" Sirius said absently as he folded up the parchment and gave it to the owl, which was currently helping itself to breakfast from Remus's bowl of cornmeal. "I have a feeling he's due to have a Hogsmeade trip soon…I can meet him there…"

"Sirius, you don't have to take off every time Harry writes you…" Dominique said, setting down her cup of tea a bit hard, causing some of the tea to splatter onto the table. "You're supposed to stay here for a few more days with us…once I leave, I won't be able to see you for a few months, you know…"

"I know…and I'm sorry," Sirius said as he returned to his breakfast, "but Harry needs me. Especially now, with this whole tournament. Somebody at Hogwarts wants him dead…"

"You think it's Snape?" Dominique asked.

"No, I'm wondering about Crouch…seems really dodgy, from what Harry's told me, and from what I've seen in the papers...Alright…I should get going now guys, it'll take me forever to get to Hogsmeade in this weather." Sirius said, getting up. "I'll probably see you guys in a few months…keep in touch though, will you?"

"Of course…" Remus said, smiling soberly at his friend.

"Sure…" Dominique said, with a tone of annoyance so slight that only Remus picked up on.

"Take care, guys." Sirius said. And with a wave, he disapparated out of Remus's house.

Remus glanced at Dominique, who was taking dirty dishes to the sink.

"You alright?" he asked.

Dominique shrugged. "First it was James, now it's Harry…"


	45. Chapter 46: Entrevista

A/N: I know this chapter seems fearfully long, but it's not…it's mostly dialogue and that always takes up more space…lol oh yes, and sorry that there's quite a bit of dialogue in this chapter—I wanted to balance it out with some descriptions, but there wasn't really any room for it here…well, hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it: )

Chapter 47: Entrevista

Remus rubbed his right temple wearily as he sat at his desk, reading Dumbledore's letter for the third time… How could it be? A boy had been lifted out of the safety of Hogwarts and had been killed…and Voldemort had returned…He had _actually _come back…

Just then an explosion came from the living room, causing Remus to jump, as he hardly ever got any visitors. He dropped his letter and rushed out to the living room, only to see Sirius Black climbing out of the fireplace.

"Remus", he breathed as he dusted off his already filthy robes. "Did you…Dumbledore…"

"Yes…I got a letter from Dumbledore…only a few minutes ago…" Remus replied. He looked grimly at Sirius. "He's really back…"

Sirius nodded. He studied Remus's countenance. He did not look worried or anxious, but rather, appeared to be fairly disgruntled.

"Remus?"

"Cedric Diggory…he's dead…"

Sudden realization struck Sirius. "You taught him…did you know him well?"

Remus looked away from Sirius as they sat down in the living room.

"Sort of" he replied. "We had a few chats the year I taught at Hogwarts…one of the brightest and most pleasant boys in his year…"

"I'm sorry…" Sirius said quietly.

Remus only sighed in response.

"Listen, Remus…" Sirius started slowly after a few moments of silence. "I offered my old place to Dumbledore, to use as a headquarters…"

Remus nodded as he finally looked up at Sirius. "Yes, I saw it in the letter…so, are you going to move back there?"

Sirius shrugged. "Don't have much of a choice, really…my dog disguise useless now, as Wormtail's probably told Voldemort and company about it…Dumbledore says I've got to hide out…"

"Makes sense…" Remus replied. "Did you want me to come and help you clean the place up? It's been empty for a while now, hasn't it…"

"Yes, well that's a given…you know more household spells than I do," Sirius said with a grin, "but no, that's not why I came. Dumbledore told me to lay low at your place in the meantime…but I was thinking"—

"…a dangerous pastime…"

Sirius grinned. "Yes, quite…well, I was thinking, maybe…since the old house is so big…and since it'll be totally inconvenient for you to travel to London all the way from here…maybe…you could come and move in with me?" He looked hopefully at Remus, who smiled slightly in return.

"Sure"—

"Moony, that's ridiculous! I don't understand you sometimes"—

"Sirius"—

"I mean, you're not inconveniencing anyone…why do you always think that? No one thinks you're a burden, damn it"—

"Sirius!"

"What?"

"I said 'sure'…"

Sirius's face broke into a sheepish grin. "Oh, sorry…bit of a habit…"

* * *

"Damn it!"

Remus dropped his book as he heard the now all too familiar screeching of the portrait of Sirius's mum; followed by Sirius's swearing. He had been staying at number twelve, Grimmauld Place for a week and already he was a bit homesick…mostly for the quiet that he missed dearly… Sirius insisted on being in his company for most of the day, leaving him barely one or two hours of solitude a day…

The screeching of Sirius's mum had ceased, and Remus could now hear Sirius talking in loud, annoyed tones.

"How many times have I told you _not_ to ring the damn bell? It always sets off that crazy hag!"

Only one guess at who could've acted so clumsily…

"So does your voice, you git…" came the voice of auror Nymphadora Tonks.

"Ok, calm down, the both of you…" came the deep mellow voice of fellow auror Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Remus sighed and got up, setting a bookmark in the place he had left off in his book. He was sometimes surprised that Kingsley, who was in charge of the hunt for Sirius and who usually played the part of mediator when Tonks and Sirius broke into a squabble, hadn't thrown his hands up and turned Sirius in to the ministry…

"So what brings you here?" Remus asked as he helped Sirius set lunch on the table for the four. "Any new business? Messages for Dumbledore?"

"No…we just got off work early today…" Kingsley said with a grin.

"And Arthur told us that Molly was over last night…and she made you guys meatloaf…" Tonks added.

"…so we thought we'd stop by to help you finish it…" Kingsley finished.

"Awfully kind of you…" Sirius replied.

"Oh, I did hear one thing though," Kingsley started again, "though I'm probably not supposed to know…I overheard Fudge talking to Lucius this morning…you guys know Dolores Umbridge?" he asked, casting a quick glance at Remus before turning to his meal.

"Oh, tell me something horrible happened to her…" Remus said dryly.

Kingsley shook his head. "Sorry mate, no such luck. Quite the reverse actually…"

"What? What happened to her?" Sirius asked.

"They're thinking of hiring her to be the new defense against the dark arts professor, since Dumbledore's having trouble finding one…"

Remus's fork made a loud clatter as he dropped it on his plate, while Sirius gaped at Kingsley.

"That old hag? Teach defense against the dark arts?" Sirius sputtered.

"Yeah, I know…" Kingsley muttered. "Dumbledore's only got a couple of weeks until his deadline. No way he'll find anyone in time…wish I could do it, but Dumbledore needs me, as well as Tonks in the ministry to spy…"

"And you would've been a spanking good professor," Tonks said, "Almost as good as this meatloaf…Remus, pass the potatoes…"

Kingsley laughed. "I'm extremely flattered…"

"Damn, we're out of firewhiskey…" Sirius said as he shut the cupboard door after lunch.

"Don't worry about it, Sirius," replied Kingsley, who lounged back comfortably in his chair, flipping through the latest issue of _The Quibbler_, "would probably be best that we stay sober for that meeting…"

"That's not until seven o'clock," Tonks said, getting up from her seat and putting her dish in the sink. "I'll go get some…I've got a craving for it myself…"

Just then there was a loud popping noise and everyone jumped, while Tonks hollered. Dominique had just apparated on Tonk's foot.

"Oh, Tonks! Sorry about that!" Dominique said apologetically as she backed away from Tonks, who was wincing in pain.

"S'all right…" Tonks replied, "Damn those heels of yours though…"

"You're a bit early for the meeting." Sirius said as Dominique gave him a swift peck on the cheek.

"Yeah, I got off from work a bit early…" she replied, and turning to Kingsley, Remus and Tonks she asked, "How are you all doing?"

"Great," Tonks replied hurriedly as she counted the gold galleons that she pulled out of pocket. "Just going to go shopping"—

"Shopping, eh?" Dominique asked, cocking an eyebrow at Tonks.

"Yes, for firewhiskey…I'm going to apparate over to Diagon Alley…want to come?"

"Sure, why not"—

"D, you just got here!" Sirius protested.

"Drop it, man…" Kingsley said with a smile. "Never prevent a woman from shopping. She'll hold it against you later…trust me, I speak from experience…"

"Fine…" Sirius grumbled.

"We'll be back shortly…it's just for whiskey!" Dominique added, rolling her eyes at Sirius.

"Do you think you could get some pumpkin juice too?" Remus asked. "I think we're out, and the Weasley children we'll be coming here in a few days' time…"

"No problem…" Tonks replied. "Well, we'll be back in a few minutes…" And with that, Tonks and Dominique disapparated out of the kitchen.

"Try a few hours, if Dominique's gone with her…" Sirius muttered.

"Right, well…I think I'll take a shower then…" Remus said after a few moments, and he got up from his seat and left the kitchen, leaving Sirius and Kingsley alone.

"Maybe I should go too…" Kingsley said after some time, "maybe kick back a bit before that meeting…"

"No wait" Sirius protested, "you can kick back here! Come on Kingsley…stick around, the girls will be back in a bit with our drinks!"

Kingsley chuckled as he sat back down. "You sure know how to tempt your fellow men…just offer 'em a bit of firewhiskey…"

Just then sound of the shower going on could be heard from down the hall. Sirius let out a small laugh.

"There goes Remus, being his prude self…he takes about an hour in the shower…uses up all the hot water…" he said.

"Oh that's annoying…" Kingsley replied, running a hand over his bald head as he leaned back in his chair. "my girlfriend always used to do that when she came over…She stopped though, once I snuck in the bathroom with my wand and turned the water ice cold, gave her a bit of a shock…" he chuckled.

Sirius raised his eyebrows in surprise at him. "Boy, Shacklebolt…a few years older, and you could've been a marauder with us. Well, that, and if you were a Gryffindor instead of a Hufflepuff…"

Kingsley laughed. "And what's wrong with Hufflepuff? Tis a great house!"

"Well, you know…" Sirius said airily, "they have a reputation…"

"Oh, right…for being the only house to not have a superiority complex…" Kingsley said with a grin.

"Superiority complex?" Sirius laughed. "How's everyone but Hufflepuff got a complex?"

"Well, Slytherins thought they were at the top with their bloodline, Ravenclaws with their big brains, and Gryffindors with all their might…"

"Actually, when you put it that way…" Sirius said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "that makes sense…I think you're right…" he added with a laugh. "The rest of us were arrogant little berks…"

"Yes, you marauders in particular, from what I heard…" Kingsley replied. "You guys were legends when I came to Hogwarts, and that was a few years after you lot left…"

"I think it was just James and I that were arrogant…" Sirius laughed. "Wormtail got complacent once in a while…but good old Moony's been pretty humble since his diaper days…"

Kingsley laughed. "I can believe that…"

Sirius glanced over in the direction of the hallway, where several doors down, Remus was showering. "Oy—want to give Remus a little shock?" he asked, turning back to Kingsley, looking at him with a mischievous grin.

* * *

"Damn…paranoid idiot locks his door…" Sirius muttered as he put down his wand after trying to open the door using the alohamora charm.

"It's like he knew…" Kingsley said quietly. "That man's got a sixth sense or something…well, we can try doing the spell through the water pipes or something…"

"Oh, brilliant…much more discreet too!" Sirius said excitedly as he hurried off to the kitchen, with Kingsley at his heels.

"Bloody hell…" Sirius muttered as he opened the door in the kitchen to where the boiler was kept. The small enclosed space had been the room of the Black family's house elf, Kreacher, and the elf had displayed an interesting choice of décor. Though the actual boiler took up most of the space, the tiny room was cluttered with Black heirlooms, including many photos of Sirius's extended family.

"Er…that Kreacher's pretty dedicated to the family, isn't he?" Kingsley said awkwardly as he looked into the boiler over Sirius's shoulder.

Sirius nodded and pulled out his wand. "Remind me to clean out this place later…but in the mean time"—

But before Sirius could tap the boiler, there was a popping sound from behind them. He and Kingsley turned around immediately to see that Dominique and Tonks had apparated into the kitchen.

"Back so soon?" Sirius asked.

Tonks grinned as she and Dominique placed the groceries on the kitchen counter. "We only went out to get to get you boys your drinks…"

"Yes well, Dominique came with you…" Sirius replied. "Thought she'd make you take a few detours…"

"Your faith in me is so pleasing…" Dominique said sarcastically as she joined Kingsley and Sirius in front of the boiler. "So what's going on? Is the boiler broken?"

Sirius shook his head and smiled as he aimed his wand at the boiler. "No, not at all. But Remus is in the shower…so"—

"That's cruel!" Dominique protested, hitting him on the shoulder. But Sirius put his hand up to silence her.

"Away with you woman," he said somberly, "or you one day shall find yourself meeting the same fate in the shower as your lupine friend…"

Kingsley and Tonks laughed while Dominique scowled at him.

"Right then," Sirius said, turning back to the boiler and tapping his wand on it. "Froide frieren!"

Immediately, the four turned in the direction of the hallway.

Sirius grinned. "Three, two, one…"

"AAAAAH!"

The group, including Dominique, fell into laughter.

"He's jumped out of the shower and is frantically adjusting the knobs," Sirius said in an attempted serious, informative tone. "and now, he's realized it's a joke…"

"SIRIUS! CHANGE IT BACK!" came Remus's shouts, causing the group to double in laughter. Just then though, the sound of the bathroom door swinging open was heard, and moments later, Remus appeared at the entrance of the kitchen, clutching tightly to the towel that was wrapped around his waist, and glaring angrily at Sirius. His face froze though as he took in the sight of Dominique and Tonks.

"Oh!" he said suddenly, immediately tightening the towel. "I…er…I thought you two were gone…"

"It doesn't take that long to buy drinks…" Dominique said, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

Still holding onto his towel protectively, Remus turned on Sirius. "Change it back! Christ, do you know how cold that was?"

Sirius chuckled as he tapped the boiler again, reheating the water. "Don't get your towel in a knot, Moony. No one ever died spending a couple of seconds in the cold…"

"Thank you…" Remus said stiffly, still keeping his fingers wrapped tightly around the wrapping of his towel. Tonks, who took notice of this grinned and pulled out several gold coins from her pocket.

"Oy Remus, five galleons to drop the towel…" she said, jingling the coins in her hand as the others laughed.

"I'll throw in another five if you jump on the table and dance for us…" Dominique added, laughing, though she was cut short by Sirius's sudden glare. "Oh, you know you'd want to see it too!" she said, playfully elbowing him in the ribs.

"As tempting as it is to take up on your offers, ladies, I'm afraid I'm going to pass…" Remus replied dryly, quickly turning on his heel to return to the bathroom, so they couldn't see him flush pink from embarrassment.

* * *

"Well, now that you all have your schedules, I need you all to memorize your shifts so you can discard those sheets of parchment. We don't want them to get in enemy hands." Professor Dumbledore said several hours later during the second official Order of the Phoenix meeting. There was a murmur of agreement amongst the group as they looked down at each other's parchments to compare schedules.

"Now along these lines of guard duty," he continued, "Alastor has been kind enough to lend two of his spare invisibility cloaks for the task. They will remain here, in Sirius's custody, and you all will pick them up from him when you go on guard duty, and then promptly return them to him when your shift is over."

"Uh, sir…" Sirius interrupted. The headmaster, as well as the other sixteen members of the order, turned to look at him. Severus Snape could be heard letting out an exasperated sigh in the background. "You haven't given me a shift. I don't see why I can't have one, if we're going to remain invisible…"

"Sirius, I believe you know very well why we can't have you standing guard in the department of mysteries. The consequences of having you discovered are to ghastly to even consider. We cannot risk getting you caught"—

"I'm willing to risk it…" Sirius said firmly, sitting up straighter in his seat.

"Yes, but even so, you have an obligation to your godson. You need to stay alive for him." Dumbledore replied.

Dominique nudged him in the arm, signaling him to shut up, but he ignored her. "Well I also have an obligation to protect him, and if it's dying in the process, so be it"—

"That is enough, Sirius…" Dumbledore said, his voice suddenly turning stern. "We need to move on with business"—

"Uh..sir…" this time it was Remus who interrupted.

"Yes, Remus?"

"Sorry…but er… I didn't get a schedule either…" he said uncertainly.

"Me neither…" chimed in Hagrid. "Reckon that's 'cause aint no invisibility cloak big enough to cover me!'

Dumbledore nodded, smiling pleasantly as a few members laughed at Hagrid's remark. "And that was the next order of business," he replied. "you two were not given guard duty, because I've assigned you tasks that require you to take leave from Britain for long periods of time…you won't have time to guard. And," he added, turning to Dominique, "my dear, you will see that you've only been given guard duty for this week, as you'll be going back to France next week for work. I've also given you a task that relates to Remus's."

Dominique nodded and glanced shortly at Remus and smiled slightly. "So what are we going to do?"

"Well," Dumbledore continued, "Hagrid, you know a bit about your task already. You'll be going out to the mountains with Madam Maxime (Hagrid blushed slightly), and will try to warn the giants of Voldemort's return, and convince them to join our side. Remus and Dominique, your tasks will take you to France. Dominique, I know you're already there for work, so you'll stay in Paris. Remus, however, I need you to go to Aveyron."

"Aveyron?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow. "What's in Aveyron?"

"Many potential order members…" Dumbledore replied, his eyes twinkling. "Madam Maxime has proven to be quite an asset. She's recruited a few professors from Beauxbatons. But that's in Paris. In Aveyron however, there is another wizarding school. It's a small one, actually, and not the…er…conventional one. It's for older students who wish to pursue wizarding education on a higher level. The equivalent to a muggle college or university, if you will…" There were a few quiet sniggers from the back of the room, where professors Snape and McGonagall sat.

"Something funny?" Dumbledore asked, raising his eyebrow at the professors.

"Oh…well…" professor McGonagall's hand immediately went to her hat, which she began to adjust. "the idea of a wizarding university…"

"Perhaps if their schooling system was a bit better, they wouldn't have a need for universities…" Snape said haughtily. "France is the only country I believe, that has wizarding universities."

Dumbledore nodded and smiled slightly. "To each his own, then. I must admit though, as a side note, I'm very happy to see you two agreeing on something for once."

McGonagall and Snape immediately shared a look of disdain, before turning away from each other.

"Well, regardless," Dumbledore continued, "the reason I want you there, Remus, is twofold. First, the werewolf population there has had a steady increase in the last few years. The general attitude towards them, is of course hostile, and in result, has led many of these people who suffer lycanthropy to lead…well, you can imagine how people live when they're disenfranchised…"

Remus nodded in understanding. "So you want me to get in touch with them?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Most importantly, before Voldemort does. You'll remember his tactics in the last war. Offering the shunned those things the wizarding community never offered them. We need to gain their trust, and I think it can be best accomplished through you, Remus. In addition, I feel that our chances of recruiting people in Aveyron are very good, in that I have already recruited one person there, who works at the Aveyron School of Higher Magical Education. She is very enthusiastic and charismatic about the cause, and what's more, she's extremely influential at that school, and also has some ties with the French ministry of magic, which will no doubt, prove to be very useful in the near future, if or when the war becomes fully fledged."

"Now, she claims an acquaintance with you, Remus," Dumbledore continued, "so together the two of you will recruit supporters in the Aveyron community. And given her reputation there, I feel that it won't be too difficult of a task. The only thing now, is getting you a job there…"

"Sorry?" Remus asked. "A job? Where?" He also wanted to ask who this woman was, who claimed an acquaintance with him. He didn't know anyone living in Aveyron. Unless…no, it couldn't be _her_…could it? His stomach seemed to go into a knot at the mere thought…

"At the school, of course…" Dumbledore replied. "Of course, getting a job there isn't necessary for the success of this task, but it will definitely make life easier for you. You'll be a stranger there, so you'll need to fit in to get people's trust. If you have a good job there, your credibility will increase…"

Remus frowned. "But…I…I don't see how I can get a job there…" he said in a quieter voice. He wished he could discuss the matter with Dumbledore after the meeting in private…

Dumbledore smiled at his former pupil. "You see, the woman whom I was speaking about will take care of that, as she is a respected professor there. Of course, we don't want to jeopardize her position at the school by doing anything fraudulent, so you will go through an honest interviewing process, but she assured us that a position for you there is almost guaranteed, given your teaching experience and expertise in defense arts."

Remus nodded. "Great…when do I get started? And er…who is this woman exactly?"

"Day after tomorrow, she will meet you at 4 o'clock at the school, which is conveniently by the Inn you'll be staying at for the first night. The reservations have already been taken care of, and Ms. Nakofsky will inform you of the details of task."

Remus sat up straighter in his seat. "Nakofsky?" he sputtered. "Kierra?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Well, she was right in saying you'd remember her. I owe her a few galleons then …Very well, next order of business…"

Remus struggled to pay attention to Dumbledore's words, but he found himself quite distracted by the prospect of his new task. He was going to work in France…he was going to see Kierra after all these years…He wondered what she was like now, if she had changed at all…

Remus's thoughts were interrupted however by a hard nudge in the ribs.

"Moony…I can't believe you're going to France!" Sirius hissed, a bit dejectedly, as Dumbledore summoned Severus Snape to present his report on his dealings with death eaters.

"I know, this is exciting!" Dominique chimed in, in hushed tones. "It's like you're James Bond, on a mission…"

"Who?" Sirius asked.

"Nevermind…"

"Guys, shut it, we're in a meeting, not in class…" Remus whispered, looking sternly at his two friends, and then turning his attention back to Snape.

* * *

"Now, the last thing we need to discuss," Dumbledore said almost an hour later, "is guard duty for Harry. Now, Mundungus," he said, turning to a small wizard who wore filthy robes and smelled of liquor, "I've had some complaints from Arabella…"

The man named Mundungus immediately sat up straighter in his seat. "Aw, sir…that Figgy…" he said, laughing slightly, "she's always blowing things out of proportion…"

"She said you left your shift early yesterday…"

"Only an hour early!" Mundungus protested. "Well, alright…three hours early…but…I had this great business opportunity"—

"Mundungus," Dumbledore said calmly, "I believe we had an agreement…"

"Yes, well…oh sir, come off it! Ain't nothin' happening anyway! Watched the boy for an hour…didn't do nothin' but sit in his aunt's flower beds under the window…listening to the television inside…"

"That's not the point, Dung!" Alastor Moody cut in, focusing his magical eye on the small wizard. "you're in this order to protect the boy, and you better do just that! He might be laying around outside one minute, next minute he might"—

"Might what? Pick a fight with his giant cousin and his mates?"

Sirius let out a laugh. "He's been fighting kids? Attaboy!"

"I don't care who he's fighting," Moody growled, "you're missing the whole point"—

"I think you all are missing the point…" Dumbledore cut in, his voice taking on a sterner tone as he gazed at his fellow order members. "We are on the brink of war, and the last thing we need is disunity and bickering on our side. There's already enough politics in this bunch, and the least all of us can do is to keep any of our resentments or reservations about each other to ourselves. Is that understood?" The members nodded in unison. "Excellent. Well then, this meeting is adjourned…I'll see you all in a few days' time…"

* * *

"I just talked to Dumbledore, Sirius…" Remus said as he joined some of the remaining order members for dinner, "I'll still be living here…"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at Remus, looking mildly interested in what his friend was saying, before he continued on to his dinner. "Really? How?"

"Well, granted that I get the job, I'll be teaching only a few days out of the week…I'll be back here almost every week." Remus said.

Sirius grunted in return.

"It's not his fault, you know…" Dominique said casually from Sirius's other side. "He didn't ask for the job. Anyway, people are here all the time…"

"But not every day!" Sirius replied. "Anyway, you try spending a whole day here by yourself with that mad elf and those even madder portraits…see how you like it…"

"Sirius, I'm sorry I won't be here…" Remus said apologetically, "but what am I supposed to do? And you knew it wasn't going to be all fun and games when we came in here. I mean, we're here for work in the first place!"

"Yeah I get your point…" Sirius said coolly. "geez, sounding exactly like you did back in school. Some things never change, huh?"

"No…some things never do change…" Remus repeated sarcastically, rolling his eyes at Sirius before turning to his own dinner.

"Shut up the both of you." Dominique said curtly. "After tomorrow we won't be seeing each other for a while. You guys don't want to part on bad terms, do you?"

"No…" Remus and Sirius said in unison.

"Then get over yourselves."

The three ate the rest of their dinner in silence, as the rest of the order members talked cheerfully over their dinners.

"So, Moony…" Sirius said after some time, as they began to work through dessert, "going to be working with the old girlfriend, eh?"

"Er…yes, I suppose I am…" Remus replied, not bothering to look up from his slice of pie, as he felt both Sirius and Dominique's eyes on him.

"Well?" Sirius asked when Remus did not elaborate on his answer.

"Well what?"

"Are you excited about it?" Sirius asked impatiently.

Remus shrugged. "Well, I suppose…I'm looking forward to seeing her after all these years…"

"I mean, what are your plans, damnit?" Sirius persisted. "Going to pursue her or what?"

Remus frowned at Sirius. "No, of course not…" he replied. "Just because we dated years ago, doesn't mean anything…anyway, for all I know, she could be married…"

"Ms. Nakofsky's what Dumbledore referred to her as…" Dominique commented. "I do believe that was her surname back in school…"

Remus shook his head. "Drop it, you guys. I'm not going to France to hook up with her…I'm going there to work"—

"…on her." Sirius finished.

Remus glared at him and Dominique as they fell into laughter.

* * *

Remus looked around the halls of Aveyron School of Higher Magical Education. For a chateau, it was fairly small in size; yet it was reminiscent of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in its medieval style of architecture. The walls and grounds, consisting of heavy, smooth stones, were not nearly as extensive as those of Hogwarts, and were not decorated with as many portraits, but it still preserved the exciting rush one felt when walking into a building for the first time. Or maybe it was just his pre-interview jitters…the same jitters he had felt when he walked into Hogwarts for the first time many years ago, and again when he took up a teaching post there recently…

After walking around the chateau for over fifteen minutes, Remus changed his mind about considering the chateau to be small. It was fairly extensive after all, with many more confusing twists and turns in the corridors—it was almost like a ten story labyrinth. He looked at his wristwatch and grimaced. He was supposed to be at his interview in five minutes, and he still couldn't find Kierra's office. What a way to be professional, coming for an interview late. Perhaps he could ask someone. Only, the chateau seemed to be practically abandoned, what with no students there over the summer…

Just as he rounded the corner though, he saw two pretty young women standing in the middle of the corridor; one with dark red hair, the other with brown. They had glanced shortly at him as he appeared, but continued to converse cheerfully with each other in French. As Remus neared them however, the brown haired woman bid her friend goodbye and headed down the staircase behind her. The redhead waved to her friend, and turning on her heel, she continued down the corridor by herself. Suddenly remembering his interview, Remus quickened his pace to catch up to the woman.

"Excuse me, Miss…" he called after her. The woman stopped walking turned around. She looked at him curiously. Remembering that he was in France, and he indeed knew some French, Remus smiled nervously as he drew closer to the woman.

"M'excuser, madame…" he started. "Uhh...où je peux trouver le bureau de madame Kierra Nakofsky?"

The redheaded woman smiled warmly at him. "You can speak English if you're more comfortable with that," the woman said with an English accent. "I'm Kierra, and I'm just heading to my office. Come with me."

But Remus did not follow her. He simply gaped. He hadn't even recognized her at first glance. But now…as she walked on…that was her body shape, that was even her walk…

Kierra turned around when she realized he wasn't with her, and looked at him curiously again. "I'm sorry…I…er…have a meeting in a couple of minutes, if you could just tell me on what business you're here"—

"Interview..." Remus replied, smiling slightly at her. She had no idea who he was, did she….

"Er, yes, it's an interview I have to go to"—Kierra stopped talking abruptly though as the thoughts caught up with her words. It was her turn to gape. The resemblance started to surface—"Remus?" she sputtered.

Remus nodded, smiling broadly. "Kierra—oof!" Kierra had thrown her arms around him, embracing him tightly.

"It's so good to see you!" she exclaimed, finally letting go of him and stepping back to take in his appearance. "God…I didn't even recognize you at first…I mean I did a little…when you first came up here…I thought you looked a little familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it…but yeah…you look so different!" she laughed.

Remus laughed as well. "Yes I suppose I don't look like an eighteen year old anymore. That's the last time we saw each other, wasn't it?"

"Yes…hard to believe it was so long ago…we've gotten old…" Kierra laughed.

Remus nodded. "I didn't recognize you at first either. From what I remember, you had brown hair…" he said, indicating at her locks of red.

Kierra grinned. "Yes, well, I went through this phase a few years ago where I'd dye my hair a different colour every few months…and well, red stuck with me…"

"It looks very nice on you…" Remus said with a smile.

Kierra smiled as she indicated for him to follow her down the corridor. "Thank you! Alright, let's take care of that interview, shall we? After that, we should go out for coffee if you're free. We have much to catch up on."

"Of course," he replied as he followed her in to her office. It was about the same size as his own office when he was at Hogwarts, though with one extra advantage: it had more windows. Remus always loved rooms with lots of windows.

"Lovely view you've got…" Remus said as he looked out one of the windows, which overlooked a sparkling blue lake in a large green garden.

"Yes, it's beautiful…" Kierra agreed. "One of my biggest distractions when I'm in here working though…especially in the school year when some of the younger, immature students fly up here on their broomsticks to say hello."

"Alright then, have a seat, Remus," she said, as she took a seat behind her desk and pulled out a sheet of parchment from inside her desk and began to look over it.

"Thank you"—Remus pulled out a chair from opposite end of the desk and was about to seat himself, when there was a knock on the door. Kierra opened her mouth to answer, but the door had swung open before she could do so.

"Bonjour, Kierra!"

Two young women had allowed themselves in the office, each with what looked like mail in their hands.

"Oh"—they looked at Remus and then looked apologetically to Kierra. Kierra in turn, only rolled her eyes at the women, but smiled.

"This is Remus," she said, "he's my old friend I told you two about…he's going to be working here in the fall!"

"Oohh…" said one of the women, running her hand through her dark brown hair. "You are the man from L'Angleterre?" she asked, in a heavy French accent.

"Uh..yes…I'm from England…" Remus replied, smiling weakly.

"Oh, sorry, Remus…" Kierra said, "This is Jude"—she pointed to the girl with dark brown hair—"and this is Elinor"—she said, indicating at the other woman with blonde hair. Good friends and colleagues of mine."

"Er…nice to meet you…" Remus said, standing up to shake their hands, forgetting once more that he knew French.

The women then turned their attention back to Kierra, telling her in French that some of the owls delivered her mail to the wrong offices, and so they were returning it to her. As they headed back to the door, they looked once more at Remus.

"Nous sommes désolés…" Elinor said apologetically. "Ve…ve sorry…ve interrupt…"

"It's ok…" Kierra said to them. "Au revoir ladies!"

The women smiled and waved goodbye as they headed out of the office, though they seemed to be stifling laughter.

"Cet homme a un derrière magnifique!" ("He has a nice backside!") Jude could be heard saying.

Remus blushed furiously and Kierra laughed.

"Il comprend français!" ("He understands French!") Kierra yelled. Elinor's laughter could be heard, followed by Jude making a loud shushing sound.

"They're a riot, those two…" Kierra said as the sounds of her two friends died out. "I suggest you don't tuck in your shirt though when you're around Jude…" she added with a wink.

Remus laughed, though it felt more forced than natural.

"Right then…interview…" Kierra said, turning back to the parchment on her desk. "So, you have a bit of teaching experience…mostly private tutoring, I can see…but you did teach in a school for one year…at Hogwarts..." she looked up at Remus and grinned. "I always imagined you teaching there. And from what I heard, you did a spanking good job!"

Remus laughed. "Thank you…but no doubt you got that from a biased source. Your niece was a very bright student, and uncommonly kind to everyone, including her professors."

"You deserved it, I'm sure…" Kierra said, smiling warmly at him. "she always spoke very highly of you. You were one of her favorite professors. Ranked you right in with Mad Eye Moody…"

"I'm thoroughly flattered…" Remus said. "So I take it you're fairly close to Nora then?"

"Oh yes…very. We keep in touch regularly." Kierra replied. "I'm actually her favorite aunt," she said proudly, "which is saying a lot, considering Nora's mum has four sisters that I have to compete against."

Remus laughed. "That's great to hear. And it's great to hear you're more inclined towards children now…"

Kierra looked up at Remus a bit questioningly. "Sorry?"

"You used to hate children…remember?"

Kierra laughed. "Oh yeah….gosh, that was so long ago…no…I no longer dislike children. I think I love them now…seeing Nora grow up and all…and I actually get to see another one grow up too!" she said excitedly. "Nora's mum is expecting actually…another girl…first week of September, I believe…"

"Really? Well congratulations… another niece for you!"

"Yes…I'm very excited…"

There were a few moments of silence, where Kierra glanced down at the parchment again. "And you resigned from your post from Hogwarts? Because of a near accident…" She looked up at Remus, who bit down on his lip, and looked at the floor.

"I've recently gotten in touch with Dumbledore…" Kierra said, in a quieter tone. While we were discussing Order business, we got talking about you coming here. And he filled me in on everything that happened the year you taught…"

He looked at her immediately. "So you know about"—

"Sirius? Yes…I know. Can't tell you how happy I was to hear he was innocent."

Remus nodded and smiled.

"…and I know about all the stuff encircling it…how it was a full moon the night it happened…and Peter got away…"

Remus nodded again. He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say. Was he supposed to defend himself and say he would never lose control while working here? But she wasn't sounding accusatory…

"So about that," Kierra started again. "No one here is going to know about your condition…If anyone finds out…well…I'll take care of that…"

"One thing though, Dumbledore never discussed with me…" Remus said, "wolfbane potion…Severus Snape had been making it for me when I was teaching, and recently started doing it again since we reformed the order. But while I'm here"—

"I know someone who can make it for you…" Kierra cut in. "He's be the only other person who knows about your condition, but he can be trusted, so don't worry. And if a full moon ever coincides with your teaching schedule, or if you're unwell during that phase of the moon, I'll take your classes for you, since our classes don't overlap time-wise."

Remus nodded. "Great…"

"Alright," Kierra said a few minutes later as she sorted through a large pile of parchments and pulled one out with Remus's name on it, handing it to him, "you've got two defense against the dark arts classes…they're both large classes, of about a hundred each. That's all, really. And I made them so they're late in the afternoon, should you ever be sick from the full moon the night before…it'll give you time to recuperate…."

"Wow…thanks…that was really considerate…" Remus said, looking down at his schedule in awe.

"No problem…"

"So what do you teach here?" he asked.

"Ancient Runes…" Kierra replied. "But lately I've gotten into magical architecture, so I've recently picked that class up, as the professor who taught that retired.

"Magical architecture?" Remus asked. "That's an interesting subject…"

"Oh yes…I love it…" Kierra replied as she got up. "Come on, it's a bit stuffy in here…why don't we go out for some coffee?"

Half an hour later, they sat at one of the outdoor tables of the Café De Coeur, a few miles away from the school.

"Remus, I'm really excited about visiting the order…you have to take me back with you one weekend…I really want to meet this Tonks…she sounds awesome!"

Remus laughed. "She is…she's extremely funny. I think you'll like her a lot."

"And Sirius too…I can't wait to see him after all these years…does he even remember me?"

"Sure he does…he is looking forward to seeing you too, and Dominique as well. She's very excited…first free weekend she has, she promised to come down here from Paris…" Remus replied.

"Still can't believe she's lived here in France all this time!" Kierra exclaimed. "Really wish I kept in touch with her…It'll be great to see her again…"

"Definitely…hey, I'm going to get some more tea…" Remus said as he got up… He headed inside the café, and asked the barista at the front counter for another cup of tea. As he waited for his drink, he looked out window and watched Kierra drink her coffee as she observed passerby, occasionally smiling at ones she recognized. He could see why she decided to stick with red hair—it was beautiful, especially when the sun hit it, making her dark red-purplish hair shine like gold. Remus blinked. Shine like gold? He turned away from the window and went to pick up his drink from the counter. The heat from the sun must have been getting to him…

As he came outside, he spotted Kierra at their table, only now another chair had been pulled up and a tall man with dark brown hair sat with her. Drawing nearer, he saw that he had very chiseled features, and was quite handsome.

"Ah, Remus!" Kierra beamed as he joined them. "Meet the man who's going to brew your potion!"

"This is Remus…" she said to the man, "he'll be teaching with me this fall…I told you all about him…he went to school with me..."

The man nodded and smiled. "Yes, I remember, you told me…"

"And Remus," she said, turning to Remus and beaming, "…this is Edmund, my fiancé…"


	46. Chapter 47: Blue Moon

_a/n: I love you, je suis une pizza, for picking up on that reference to "Beauty and the Beast"! Imagine Sirius (as Gaston) singing with Remus (as Lefou) lol… : ) Also, I noticed there was a bit of surprise at how I ended the last chapter. C'mon guys…I hinted at it in the previous chapter (Breakfast at Moony's)! I made some references to Edmund...wasn't anyone suspicious of him? lol sorry…anyway…I'm doing the line skipping format now, I had gone and viewed my fic on hpff and I took pity for all of your eyes…lol so this chapter isn't nearly as long as it looks :P _

Chapter 48: Blue Moon

Remus had never been so glad to be back at Twelve Grimmauld Place. He had just spent his afternoon with Harry and his friends, along with Sirius, fixing an old, yet lethal grandfather clock that tended to shoot heavy bolts at passerby. It took a good three hours to fix up, but it was a fun three hours, notwithstanding the occasional questions from the kids regarding his disappearances which he chose to ignore…as well as the occasional interruptions by Kreacher, who made a point to mutter obscenities such as 'mudblood lovers' and 'halfbred monster' under his breath as he passed through the room. No, despite it all, Remus was very glad to be back in the safety of the Order. Close to Sirius and the other order members, and the kids of course. He felt very safe here…

"Well, all the kids have locked themselves upstairs in their rooms…" Sirius said as he entered the kitchen, where he found Remus washing dishes.

"No doubt discussing what they picked up on those extendable ears…" Remus said, not looking up from his work. Sirius joined him by the sink, leaning back against the counter and staring fixedly at Remus.

"Yes dear?" Remus asked casually as he placed a cleaned cauldron on the counter.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Do you need any help?"

"Sure…you can put the dishes away…you know where they all belong don't you?" Remus asked with a grin.

Sirius scowled in return as he picked up the clean cauldron and headed to one of the cupboards. "This_ is_ my house, you know…"

"I tease…" Remus said as he continued to wash dishes. "So, what's the matter?"

"What makes you think something's the matter?"

"Well, you usually don't offer to clean with me unless you want to talk about something…"

Sirius grinned. "Fair enough…"

"So, what's up?"

"Well…" Sirius frowned as he stacked dry dishes on top of one another. "I just…well, I'm sorry about the whole Kierra thing…"

Remus jerked his head back to look at Sirius, though he never stopped his work. "What's to be sorry about?"

"Nothing!" Sirius said, waving his hands defensively in front of him. "I just feel bad that I was making fun of you about her all those times…I mean, I know you didn't care for her or anything…but I don't know…I just felt kind of bad about it anyway, what with her being engaged and all…"

Remus didn't answer immediately. He wished Sirius hadn't brought up those stupid jokes about him and Kierra getting together. Not that he liked her or anything; he had gotten over her many years ago…But still, it was all just a little embarrassing—getting teased by his friends about getting together with Kierra…him finally meeting her, and admittedly he was slightly attracted to her, only because she was much prettier than he had remembered her to be. But he just thought her pretty…he didn't _like_ her…Even so, his minor attraction certainly made the situation more difficult to handle. She was _engaged_; for several months now. And to a man who was not only handsome, but actually intelligent, and amiable. Remus felt slightly unnerved at how incredibly decent Edmund was—so well mannered and kind, not to mention cultured…and it was very clear that Kierra loved him dearly. Well, they'd be happy together, and Remus would be happy for them.

"Er…Remus?"

Remus looked blankly at Sirius for a moment, but then shook his head and smiled slightly. "Sorry…I"—he sighed—"bit tired…"

Sirius nodded, though he looked at Remus appraisingly.

"Don't worry about it, Padfoot…" Remus started again, returning his attention to the dishes. "I'm fine…"

Sirius cocked an eyebrow at him, causing Remus to let out a small laugh as he rolled his eyes at his friend. "Really!" he asserted. "I am! It just took me by surprise, that's all. But I'm happy for her…"

"Really?"

"Really…and I told you, I met Edmund. He's a really nice guy…"

"You're a nice guy too…" Sirius said with a frown.

Remus laughed again. "Thanks…as are you…but they're…they're for each other…they'll be happy together."

"Why? Has he got something you don't have?" asked Sirius.

"Well, he's much better looking"—

"Moony, I do recall the ladies being quite fond of you back in the day…"

"But not for my looks…" Remus replied, blushing slightly at Sirius's comment. "And you make it sound as if I was a ladies' man…we both know that was you and James…"

Sirius laughed. "Yes, well, can't argue there. But still…you said he's all nice and smart, and all of that shit…you have all those qualities…"

"He's awfully suave too…" Remus added.

"You're suave!" said Sirius.

"I am not…"

"Are too…"

"No…"

"Moony, there's nothing wrong with being suave! Why is it so hard for you to take a compliment?"

"Because…" came a voice from the entrance of the kitchen. Remus and Sirius turned around to see Tonks walking in with a letter in her hand. "He always thinks he's undeserving of everything good…"

"That's not true…" Remus protested.

"Actually, that's very true." Sirius laughed. "You take modesty and humility to an extreme, Moony…"

Remus grimaced as the other two laughed. Stupid Blacks, always acting like this… If they weren't bickering with each other like little siblings, they were ganging up on him to tease him.

"I've got to head back to the ministry to give some stuff to Kingsley," said Tonks, when the laughter subsided, "but this just arrived for you, Remus." She said, handing the letter to him. And as she headed out of the kitchen, she added, "and uh, Sirius…there's a bit of owl droppings to clean up in the living room…"

Sirius had a look of revulsion on his face as he followed after Tonks. "Are you bloody kidding me? That's the second time this week a delivery owl has taken a shit in my house! Well, I'm not cleaning it up! It's Remus's letter—he can clean it up!"

Now alone with his letter, Remus broke the waxy red seal which bore the initials "K.N." in elegant script. He unfolded the parchment, only to find a very brief letter written:

_24 August 1995_

_Dear Remus,_

_I received a letter from my brother this morning, informing me that my father passed away. I'm coming up to London tomorrow—want to be with my family and all—and I'll be in town for about a week. Just thought I'd tell you because I'll be stopping at the headquarters too—to meet everyone, and to sit in on a meeting. I hope this isn't too weird to ask, but would you be able to come to the funeral? Since you knew him a little…I mean, I know you didn't get to know him well…but…I don't know…it'd be nice if you could be there. It's on the 26th. Anyway, perhaps I'll see you in a few days._

_Sincerely,_

_Kierra_

"Well, I went ahead and cleaned up the shit…" Sirius said as he reentered the kitchen alone. He wore a scowl on his face as he went to the kitchen sink to wash his hands, but immediately changed to a look of concern as he saw Remus's dismal look. "What's the matter? Who's the letter from?" he asked.

Remus didn't answer, but instead, handed the letter over to Sirius, who read it over in a few seconds.

"Oh." He said simply. He looked up at Remus, and after a few moments of silence, he asked "Do you remember her father?"

Remus scratched his chin and squinted, trying to recall. "I do…a little. When she and I were dating…I went to her house a few times during the summer, remember? After we graduated? And I always ran into her dad. He was nice…we used to have good chats."

Sirius smiled slightly. "Only you, Moony, had good chats with the parents…the rest of us…"

"Sirius, you never stayed with a girl long enough to even have to consider meeting their parents…" Remus replied with a small smile. "Well, except with Dominique. I bet her parents would've liked you…"

Sirius snorted. "Is that a compliment or an insult? Dominique told me about her parents, you know…"

"I'm not quite sure…I guess the latter…"

"Well, in that case, sod off, Moony."

Remus rolled his eyes as he tucked Kierra's letter away in his pocket.

"So, are you going to go?" Sirius asked after a moment.

Remus shrugged. "I suppose I will. Only, it's the day after tomorrow. The kids will all be leaving for Hogwarts that day, right? I'm supposed to escort them…"

"I'd go in your place, as Snuffles, but the headmaster said no…" Sirius said, putting a particularly bitter emphasis on 'headmaster'.

Remus smiled sympathetically. "He does it because he cares…"

"He's got about a thousand other kids to take care of at his school…" Sirius said.

Remus sighed as he headed out of the kitchen. "There's no arguing with you, is there?"

"Not at all…"

"I wonder how your animagus is a dog. You should've been a donkey…or a mule…"

Sirius watched after Remus's retreating figure, and it wasn't until his friend had disappeared that he understood his comment. "Oh yeah?" he said, following after Remus. "I'd like to see you become an animagus! Wonder what you'd turn into!"

* * *

Kierra followed her brother Harvey upstairs to the small attic in her late father's house, pulling an empty rubbish bin along her side. She felt miserable right now. Physically, emotionally, mentally… She hadn't slept in 48 hours. Her head pounded, her eyes burned and felt sore. Thankfully, Nora, Janine and Edmund were downstairs busy with funeral preparations and had not seen her breakdown. She had remained surprisingly composed since hearing of her father's death, but being in their old house…without the presence of her parents…the feeling was overwhelming for her. She was glad though that no one but her immediate family—her brother—saw her cry…

"You've got to be kidding me…" Harvey muttered as he lit up the attic with a wave of his wand. "This is going to take forever to clean up…"

Kierra set the bin down on the floor and glanced around the dimly lit attic. Harvey was certainly right. Dust-covered boxes and chests took up nearly every inch of the attic, stacked across the walls, and piling up to the ceiling. They were certainly going to be up here during the better part of the day, Kierra thought as she pulled out her own wand.

"Lumos maxima…" she said, flicking her wand and producing a very bright light from the tip of her wand.

An hour later, the rubbish bin had reached its maximum capacity, and Harvey had gone downstairs to empty it out. As he reached the attic once again, he found Kierra kneeling over a large wooden chest, excitedly pulling its contents out, item by item. He smiled as he watched her. Going through their family's old heirlooms had certainly picked up her mood…

"What have you got there?" He asked as he joined her and knelt down beside her.

"Some of our old stuff!" Kierra replied with a grin as she pulled out a miniature toy broomstick, which looked no more than two feet long. "This was your first broom, wasn't it?"

Harvey smiled as he took the small broom in his hand. "I can't believe I was able to fit on this thing at one point…maybe I ought to save this thing for the baby…when she gets a bit older, maybe…"

Kierra giggled as she watched her older brother stroke the broomstick with fondness. Though it was a bit fuzzy in her mind, she did have memories of Harvey being quite attached to that little broom. She had one vague memory of her brother putting her on the broom when she was little and using their mother's wand to get it to fly…which resulted in the broom malfunctioning, soaring up several feet into the air, and dropping little Kierra to the ground. She considered herself very lucky to have broken her fall on her brother.

"Hey, look at this!" Harvey exclaimed. He pulled out a very dusty looking chess board, and immediately began to rummage through the chest, in search of the chess pieces. He frowned as he set all the glass pieces he could find on the board. There were several pieces missing—three pawns from the white side, two from the black side, as well as the black side's queen and a bishop from the white's side.

"Guess we can't get much use out of this…" Harvey muttered as he picked up the set and dumped it in the rubbish bin. But just as he did so, one of the white pieces slid off the board and hit the floor, and immediately the glass cracked, breaking the piece into several fragments.

"Damn…"

Harvey knelt down and began to pick up the pieces of glass, but stopped to examine one of them more closely. He looked up at Kierra and cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What?" she asked, looking at her brother curiously. He had a very amused look on his face.

"Queen Kierra?"

"Sorry?"

Harvey chuckled as he handed her the broken piece. It seemed to be the base of the broken—Kierra was sure it was the queen—piece. She pulled it up close to see what Harvey found so amusing about the broken piece. And as she turned it upside down she immediately saw it…Engraved at the bottom in tiny cursive script was 'Queen Kierra'.

"So which sappy boyfriend of yours gave you that one?" Harvey asked when he saw the grin spreading on Kierra's face. Kierra laughed as she continued to look at the engraving reminiscently.

"Remus…"

Harvey's brow furrowed. "Er…sounds familiar…"

"Lupin…"

"Oh! Nora's old teacher? The one you dated way back?"

Kierra laughed again and nodded. "That's the one…"

"The one you're working with right now at school?"

Kierra nodded again. "Yup…"

"Funny world we live in…" said Harvey. He watched as Kierra put the shard of glass with the other broken glass on the floor and pull out her wand.

"You speak the truth brother—reparo!"

The broken glass immediately repaired itself, taking on its shape of a queen piece. Kierra picked it up and put it in her pocket. She laughed when she saw her brother cock an eyebrow at her.

"It's a keepsake!" Kierra protested. "He's a friend now, you know…"

"Is he?"

"Yeah…I actually told him to come to the funeral…he knew dad a little, you know, when we were dating..." Kierra replied. "Then I'm going to go with him to the order for a meeting."

"Aah…the order…as in the phoenix?"

Kierra smiled wryly as she nodded. "The order, as in the one you won't join…but yeah, same thing…"

Harvey sighed as he continued to empty out the contents of the chest. "I told you, Kierra…if Nora weren't so young…or if Janine wasn't expecting…"

Kierra smiled as she pulled out her old stuffed hinkypunk and tossed it in the bin. "I'm kidding. You've a right to be hesitant in joining…"

They continued to work quietly for several minutes, breaking the silence only in bouts of coughing fits from the ample dust in the room. Harvey had begun to neatly stack his old comic book collection in a clean box, when Kierra let out a small squeal. Harvey immediately jumped to his feet and pulled out his wand, looking around the attic dangerously.

"Where is it?" he asked. But he frowned when he saw that Kierra was still sitting on the floor, looking fondly at a tiny wooden box she had pulled out from a new trunk.

Kierra giggled. "Did you think I saw a mouse again?"

Harvey grumbled and sat back down, tucking his wand away.

"I found my old jewelry box!" She continued as she began to pull out brightly colored, cheap looking jewelry from the decorated box.

"You had terrible taste…" Harvey commented as he glanced over his sister's shoulder to look at the contents of the jewelry box.

"Did not! This stuff was in style then! I've got to show this to Nora…I wonder if she'll want any of it"—

"Oh God no...I don't want my daughter wearing that rubbish"—

"Harvey! This stuff's coming back in style"—

"Why? It's quite tacky"—

"Says the man whose wife has to dress him every morning…"

Harvey laughed. "She does not dress me every morning…I can dress myself up…I did today…"

Kierra looked her brother up and down. "Yeah, it looks like it…"

Harvey scowled in return. "Well, I'll give you some credit. This necklace is alright looking, except for all the rust…" he said as he pulled out a silvery locket which had rusted to a dark red with age. Hanging from the rusty silver chain was a large silver heart, which had also tarnished. In the center, circumscribed by the rusty heart was a bright blue orb, which reminded her a bit of a moon, and also a crystal ball…

"It is pretty…" Kierra remarked as she took the necklace in her own hands. "I want to say I had good taste…but I don't think I picked it out…"

"Really? Then who?"

"I think this is another Remus product…"

"That guy spoiled you…" Harvey laughed. "Why did you guys break up again?"

Kierra shook her head as she pried the locket open. "Stupid reasons…"

"I take it then, you initiated the breakup?"

Kierra laughed. "Sod off…"

She looked again at the inside of the locket, and this time something caught her eye. Handwriting…something beginning with an 'A'….and there was an 'N'…or maybe it was an 'O'…she couldn't tell…it was rusted from the inside…

"Know any good deoxidizing charms?" she asked, looking hopefully at her brother.

Harvey pulled out his wand. He stared at the necklace, in deep thought, trying to remember the spell. He smiled slightly and extended his hand out to Kierra, in which she dropped the necklace.

"Enverniso!"

Immediately, the rust fell away, and the necklace was sparkling like new. Kierra excitedly took the necklace back in her hands and tried again at the engravings.

"Amour Éternal" she read aloud, automatically falling back into a French accent. Her jaw dropped a few inches…

"Not all of us know French…" Harvey said after a moment. "Care to enlighten me? What's Ah-moor a-tuh-nahl?"

Kierra laughed at her brother's botched up pronunciation. "Eternal love…"

"Eternal love?" Harvey repeated. "So much for that, eh?"

Kierra only laughed in response as she tucked the locket away in her pocket. She wondered if it would be scandalous of her to wear the necklace…it was quite pretty, after all…Perhaps she'd run it by Edmund to make sure he didn't mind her wearing old jewelry given to her by a boyfriend from over fifteen years ago…

She wondered though why she didn't remember when Remus gave her the necklace. She was positive it was from him…he seemed to be quite fond of engraving things. But when…under what circumstances did he give it to her? There had to be an occasion…that was just the Remus thing to do. He had given her a book for her birthday, the chess set…she was sure it was for Christmas…yes…she had never been good at chess…that was part of the joke…or…no, was it? She remembered some dirty joke being involved with it, but couldn't recall exactly…Well, the point was, he bought her presents for occasions. No matter, she thought as she took the refilled rubbish bin back downstairs to the kitchen. She'd see him later today. Maybe she'd show the necklace to him to see if he'd remember it…

* * *

Remus walked alone as he followed the party out of the cemetery. He didn't recognize anyone there except for Kierra, Nora, and of course, Edmund. And then there was a couple that Remus took to be the parents of Nora, as the man looked a bit like Kierra, and the woman with him looked very pregnant. Everyone else seemed like old family friends or relatives. But he dared not disturb or talk to any of them. He had watched the entire funeral from a backseat, and once or twice he observed his acquaintances. It pained him to see his former student shed tears, though it was with some relief that he sighed when Kierra put her arm around her niece. He only wished now that Edmund would turn his head a few degrees to the right to see his fiancée's tears. Couldn't he see that the woman needed comfort? Remus watched the small group intently, hoping Edmund would put a comforting arm around Kierra. Several times during the service he fought the temptation to go up to the front pew and embrace Kierra himself…

But just then, the sudden touch of someone's hand on his arm made him snap out of his reverie. He turned around to see Kierra standing in front of him, accompanied by her niece's family, as well as Edmund.

"Remus, so glad you came…" Kierra murmured as she hugged him.

"How are you doing?" he asked softly as the pulled away.

Kierra smiled slightly. "I'm alright, thanks…I wanted you to meet some people." She turned to indicate the people with her. "You've already met Edmund…"

Remus nodded and smiled, shaking hands with Edmund.

"And you remember Nora…"

Nora smiled shyly at her former professor as she took his hand and shook it. "Of course I remember," Remus replied, smiling warmly at her. She had grown up quite a bit in these past couple of years, no longer looking like a little girl anymore. "How are you Nora?"

"Good, thank you…" she replied.

"And here," Kierra beamed, "is my brother Harvey, and his wife Janine…"

Remus turned to the couple and shook both their hands in turn. "It's nice to finally meet…Kierra's told me quite a bit about you."

"And we about you…" Janine replied with a smile. "From Kierra and Nora…you're the famous defense against the dark arts teacher!"

At hearing this, Nora blushed slightly and hid behind Edmund, who took notice, and only looked at her questioningly.

Remus laughed, choosing to ignore Nora's blushing, as he wasn't quite sure why she was doing so.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Remus," Harvey said after a few minutes of chatting, "but we've got to make some rounds, say hello to the others…"

"Of course," Remus replied with a smile. "Nice to meet you as well." And with that, he waved them goodbye as he watched them go…well, all except for one. Kierra still stood by him. A moment later, as the party continued to walk away, Edmund turned around to see Kierra still standing with Remus.

"Coming?" he asked her.

"Yeah…I'll join you all in a sec." Kierra said, and with that, her fiancé continued along with his family-to-be. Kierra turned back around to face Remus and smiled at him. "Hey, thanks again for coming today, Remus…" she said in a softer tone.

Remus smiled back at her. "No problem…hey, are you sure you're going to be ok?" he asked, with a look of concern in his eyes.

Kierra smiled sadly and nodded. "I have some comfort in all of this."

"Really, what?"

"Well…a few weeks ago, I came up here to introduce Edmund to my family. My dad really liked him…and I was so afraid he wouldn't…" Kierra muttered. "So, I guess I feel some closure…on some level…in that…we left each other on good terms and everything…actually, I'm not sure what I'm saying…do I even make sense?"

Remus laughed lightly. "Yes, you make perfect sense. I understand completely…you have no regrets on how you've parted with him."

"…and so, parting on good terms should make the healing process easier, right?" Kierra asked him. She looked at him so earnestly with her soft brown eyes…

"Well…" he started slowly, "a bit, yes…but"—

Kierra had turned away suddenly. He saw her hands go to her face.

"Kierra"—

She turned around once more to face him. She was smiling, and wiping the corners of her eyes, causing her eyeliner to smear under her eyes. "Sorry…" she muttered. "Something…um, my eyes…something got into my eyes…"

Remus nodded. He was about to open his mouth to speak up, but Kierra suddenly pulled something out of her pocket—what appeared to be a locket. He suddenly had the feeling of déja vu…

She was still smiling at him. "Do you recognize this?"

"It does look familiar…"

Kierra opened up the locket and offered it to Remus, who took it and peered inside.

"Amour Éternal" he read aloud. "Amour Éternal? Er…wait…did I…?"

Kierra nodded and laughed. "Harvey and I were cleaning up our dad's house yesterday, and I found it. Can't say I remember when you gave this to me though…"

"Valentine's Day…"

"Valentine's Day?" Kierra thought back. Of course! It _had _been Valentine's Day…He had given it to her over their lunch date…but…

"That's so weird!" she commented. "I remember you giving this to me…I remember getting it…but I don't remember wearing it. I vaguely even remember having it…I'm sorry…" she added apologetically.

Remus laughed. "It's alright, it was so long ago, I can barely remember myself…"

"Unless…" Kierra paused to think back. She looked down at the locket and examined it. The latch that would hold the chain together was broken. Suddenly she remembered it all. "Unless I did wear it…until we got into a fight and broke up, in which case I tore off the necklace and never wore it again…"

Remus smiled as he reminisced. "We did have a fight didn't we? Something to do with…when we all thought Sirius had gotten Dominique pregnant…back at school…"

Kierra giggled. "Why would we have gotten into a fight about that?" But the look on Remus's face said it all. "Oh….." she said at the sudden realization. There was a moment of silence where neither looked at each other, and they both blushed out of embarrassment, remembering the level of intimacy they once shared.

"Yes, I remember it now…" Kierra said finally. "I was so mad at you that night, I literally tore that necklace off, and dumped it in my trunk. I must've forgotten about it though by the time we got back together…"

"Understandable…" Remus replied.

There was another moment of silence, though this one more pregnant than the last. Remus looked at his watch and realized it was almost time to go back to Grimmauld place for the Order meeting. He looked up again at Kierra to tell her he should go, but immediately stopped to gaze at her wide eyed when he saw tears welling up in her eyes.

"Oh Kierra"—

He pulled her close to himself, and before he knew it, Kierra was sobbing uncontrollably on his shoulder. He felt the presence of passing guests, who murmured quietly as they walked by.

"I'm sorry…" she sputtered.

"No, it's ok…"

Remus stroked her head gently as she cried. He had no idea where the sudden burst of grief had come from, when moments ago they were laughing and reminiscing. But then again…

"I miss him, Remus"—

"Shh…"

Still stroking her head with one hand, Remus reached into his pocket with his free hand. "Handkerchief?" he offered.

Kierra sniffed as she pulled away from his shoulder to take the handkerchief.

"Thank you…" she muttered, as she wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "I'm sorry"—

"No, it's alright…"

After a few more moments of silence, with Kierra wiping her tears, she offered the handkerchief back to Remus.

"Keep it." He said simply. He looked at her intently. "Are you sure you're going to be ok?"

Kierra nodded quickly and smiled. "Yes, I will be. Thanks…"

Remus smiled back at her. "Alright. Kierra, it was good to see you…I've got to head back though—that meeting's going to be starting in a bit."

A look of sudden realization overtook Kierra's face as her mouth fell open. "Oh, the meeting…"

"You don't have to go, Kierra…No one expects you to…"

"But it's a big one"—

"I can fill you in on it—don't worry."

"I feel so bad…I told Dumbledore I'd come"—

"He'll understand." Remus said with a tone of finality. "Look, don't feel like you have an obligation to be there. You're clearly not up for it, so don't push yourself. No one will be mad at you for missing the meeting."

"Are you sure?" Kierra asked. She looked at him with mixed uncertainty and guilt.

Remus smiled at her. "I'm absolutely certain."

"I'll miss the others…"

"You can come in a couple of days if you'd like, before you head back home. There's no meeting, but Sirius and Dominique will be there, and several other order members stop by regularly and we can introduce you then. How does that sound?"

A small smile graced her features as she nodded. "Alright…I'll see you tomorrow then."

Remus smiled back and put a hand on her shoulder. "Til tomorrow then…"

* * *

"Kreacher!"

Remus winced as he looked up from his copy of the Daily Prophet.

"KREACHER!"

Remus rolled his eyes, and dropping his paper on the coffee table he got up to head to the kitchen, where he found Sirius, burrowing his head into the oven. Smiling, he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned casually against the doorway of the kitchen.

"Has Kreacher gotten himself lodged into the oven?" he asked.

There was a loud thud from the inside of the oven, followed by Sirius letting out a string of curse words at Remus. He pulled himself out of the oven, and rubbing the top of his head, he stared menacingly at his friend.

"Do you really think I'd be trying to retrieve the pathetic bastard if he were stuck in the oven?" he asked.

Remus smiled genially in response as he watched Sirius tear off his oven mitts and toss them on the kitchen counter. "Alright then…that eliminates one possibility as to why your head was in the oven and you were shouting Kreacher's name…"

"That little toe rag has done something to the oven…I've been trying to bake this pie for over an hour…and it hasn't even warmed up yet! I swear, when I find him"—

"You could always try turning the oven on…" Remus said as he switched the oven on and grinned wryly at Sirius. Sirius in turn, looked quite put off.

"I _did_ turn the oven on"—

"You set the oven on 350 degrees, but I don't think you actually had the oven start baking…you have to pull the knob, see?" Remus indicated.

Sirius scowled at him. "Fine—since you're such a mastermind in the kitchen, you finish the cooking. I'm thinking we should go French today"—

"Cooking?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow. "But there are leftovers from last night…"

Sirius shook his head. "You don't serve leftovers to guests…"

"Guests?"

"Yeah, Kierra and Edmund are coming tonight for dinner!"

"Tonight? I thought they were coming over in a few days"—

"Change of plans…Didn't you see the letter they sent? I left it on the table for you…Why else do you think I'd bother with cooking?"

Remus sighed as he went to the pantry to see what he could whip up. "Dinner for what, ten? I'm assuming the others will stop by as well…"

"I only know of Dominique coming," Sirius replied, "but the others might pop by without notice, as they usually do…so alright, see what you can make…I'm going to try to tidy up this place some more…"

"You're really going all out to impress your guests aren't you, Padfoot?"

"Shut it…"

An hour later, Sirius found his dining room full—Tonks, Kingsley, Arthur and Moody had just arrived together from the ministry, and sat down at the table with Dominique and Molly, whom had arrived several minutes before them. Just as Tonks got up from her seat though, to ask Remus if she could help him in the kitchen, the door bell rang, much to the latter's relief.

"Why don't you get the door instead?" he asked her. But as the wailing of Mrs. Black began to echo through the house, he turned to her once more and added, "Or perhaps shut Mrs. Black up…"

With that, Tonks hurried to the portrait to help Sirius shut it up. Remus made to go open the door, but upon looking down at his self and realizing he was still wearing Molly Weasley's "#1 MUM" apron, he immediately stopped in his tracks to untie it. Only, it was proving to be quite difficult, as the knots were made tightly in the back…

"I'll get it…" Dominique said with a grin as she got up from the table. Mrs. Black's shouting had finally subsided and Remus heard Dominique opening the front door. The next thing that happened seemed like a domino affect. As Remus heard the door creak open, there was another shrieking noise—two women's voices this time though. It seemed as though Dominique and Kierra had gone into hysterics, with all their squealing and crying. That in turn retriggered Mrs. Black's screeches, which in turn, triggered Sirius's loud swearing as he once again attempted to shut the portrait up.

"Damn women!" Sirius could be heard shouting down the hall. Remus, still fumbling with the knots from the apron, grinned at Sirius's swearing, which he thought to be fairly justified. Women _did _scream an awful lot…

"I'm assuming Kierra's here now…" Kingsley said with a grin as he and the others got up to go meet her. "Either that, or there's two pigs at the front door waiting to be butchered."

"Dost my ears deceive me?" Dominique asked as she entered the kitchen with Kierra and Edmund at her side. The two ladies were pink faced with glee and exhaustion, no doubt from all their squealing. "Did Kingsley just compare us to pigs?"

Kingsley in turn chuckled. "I jest, ma'am…"

"Though rightly so…" Remus said as he joined the others. "Kierra, Edmund, good to see you. I trust you made it here safely?"

Kierra grinned as she shook his hand. "Yes, we did. Thanks…By the way, nice apron."

Remus blushed as he once again tried to free himself from the apron while the others laughed at him. "It's not mine"—

"Oh, Remus…here, let me get it for you"—Molly hurried over to Remus's side and undid the apron in seconds.

"Ah, thank you, Molly…" Remus muttered quietly, still feeling slightly embarrassed at wearing a "#1 MUM" apron in front of everyone. "Er…let me introduce you all…" he said, turning to Kierra and Edmund and then indicating at the group. "This is Molly Weasley, and of course Kierra—you remember Dominique, and this is Arthur Weasley, Molly's husband. And this is Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora"—

"Remus! How many times do I have to tell you, it's _Tonks_!" Tonks exclaimed as she looked ominously at Remus.

"…Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be just called Tonks…and this is Alastor Moody. Kierra, you remember"—

"Of course I do!" Kierra replied, grinning at Moody. "You were our mentor, back in auror training!" She extended her hand out to Moody, but he didn't take it. Not before looking her and her fiancé up and down with his magical eye. Kierra looked at him warily, while Edmund looked from Kierra to Remus quite nervously. At long last, Moody decided that neither of them were death eaters acting as impersonators and he shook their hands in turn.

"I remember you, Nakofsky." He growled, staring at her with his normal eye while his magical eye shifted back and forth between Edmund and Remus. "I hear you've gone into teaching now…what subjects?"

"Er…ancient runes…and magical architecture." Kierra replied, wondering what he would think of that, seeing as he was known to be obsessed with defense against the dark arts and tended to think less of most other subjects.

Moody nodded, now focusing both eyes on Kierra. "Good, good…safe subjects…"

Kierra smiled wryly but did not respond. She knew exactly what he meant by that…

"So, Edmund is it?" Moody asked, turning to Kierra's fiancé. "So, what do you do?"

"Oh—I'm a potion brewer." He replied, though with a note of uneasiness in his voice. He still looked frightened of Moody's eye. "I just started working at the wizard's hospital in Aveyron. Before that I was teaching potions at the college Kierra is at…that's where we met, actually…"

Moody's eyes seemed to penetrate through Edmund's. "For a French man, you sound pretty English. What's your deal?" Moody asked gruffly.

"Moody"—Remus cut in, upon seeing the scandalized looks on Kierra and Edmund's faces—"Edmund is actually from England…he's just been living in France for a few years now."

"Not a few years…fifteen years!" Kierra said defensively.

"Oh, right." Remus muttered. He thought he was helping…

Edmund laughed nervously. "Yeah…I've been living in France for a while now, but I was born and raised in Leeds…the English accent won't go away."

"That's kind of why we got to know each other in the first place, actually." Kierra continued, turning to Dominique. "We were the only Britons in the entire college, so we immediately connected with each other."

Dominique opened her mouth to respond, but at that very moment, a cough could be heard from behind them. They all turned around to see Sirius standing at the doorway.

"Oh—Sirius!"

Sirius fell back a few feet when Kierra threw her arms around him, pulling him in for a tight embrace. This certainly wasn't the awkward effect he was hoping to produce by entering in on them in the midst of their conversation.

"It's….great to see you…" Sirius stammered as Kierra pulled away from him. He looked her up and down. Remus was right. She _had_ changed a bit in appearance. She was definitely prettier than he last remembered, and she looked much more mature in her business suit than in her jeans and t-shirts or Hogwarts uniform she used to wear as a teen.

"You too…" Kierra replied. She stared back at him, trying to hold back the tears. He looked _so_ unbelievably different. If she hadn't known him for as long as she had, or if the Daily Prophet hadn't published his pictures in their paper so often, she probably wouldn't have recognized him. True, he did look a bit better now than he did in his prison photos from a few years ago; he definitely looked healthier and not so skeleton-like anymore. But still, he no longer had elegant locks of silky black hair, but instead his hair had grown long and untamed, making him look a bit wild. His handsome face and radiant complexion now looked weak and sallow—and she could barely see traces of his once beautifully chiseled features. However, one thing remained unchanged. She had noticed it in the Daily Prophet a few years ago, and still saw it today—his gray eyes were still the same: penetrating, yet impenetrable—cold and unfeeling, yet fiery and passionate.

"Er—Kierra"—

"Oh!" Kierra quickly wiped her eyes. Without realizing it, she had begun to cry. "I'm sorry …" she squeaked, as a result of her crying and attempting to laugh at the same time. But the crying got the better of her. Tears ran down her cheeks uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry no one can give you back your twelve years…" she blurted as she stared into those gray eyes. "I'm sorry this all happened"—

Sirius had been staring at her incredulously when she broke into tears, but at her apology, he knew not what to do except hug her. As he did so, he felt his shoulder getting wet from Kierra's tears. The shock seemed to make his heart skip a beat. He had never seen anyone shed so many tears for him, except maybe Dominique. Not that he wanted pity or anything…but it was Kierra…the two were never really good friends. Even when they went to school together, even after Hogwarts…they never became close. They had just moved in the same social groups. Their friends had married. He had married her friend. She had dated his friend. They were always were limited to the "friend's friend" relationship, and hardly moved beyond that. And now here they were—she was sobbing against his shoulder for him, and he was comforting her.

"Hey, I'm not that much of a fright to look at, am I?" he asked her quietly, causing her to make another one of those noises that sounded halfway between a laugh and a sob.

"You're not…" she replied as she pulled away from him and wiped her eyes with the handkerchief Remus had given her the day before. "I'm sorry…it's just been….long time, no see…eh?"

Sirius smiled and nodded. Ok…and now the awkwardness had set in. The two of them stood about a foot apart, avoiding each other's eyes. And what was worse, everyone else was standing around watching, probably feeling just as awkward….

"You know," Dominique piped up, "in all my years in knowing you guys, I think that's the first time you two have ever hugged!"

Sirius silently made thanks that Dominique had broken the tension as he laughed lightly with the others.

"That's not true…" he replied, scowling at Dominique (though at the same time throwing her a grateful look when no one was looking), "I mean…I can't think of any instances right now, but I'm sure we've hugged before…"

"Actually…" Kierra interjected in a rather quiet, timid voice, "I don't even think I hugged you on your wedding day. I remember being all emotional with Dominique…but I think with you, all I had done was give you a congratulations…"

Sirius laughed. "Well, I suppose we weren't the best of friends way back when, but that's alright…we can catch up now."

"Of course…"

"So…uh…how about introducing me to the gentleman you've brought with you?"

"Oh!" Kierra turned around quickly to Edmund and looked at him apologetically, who in return, smiled good naturedly at her. "I'm sorry—Sirius, this is my fiancé, Edmund. Edmund, this is Sirius Black."

Edmund, smiling in the timid way that he did upon meeting Mad Eye Moody, shook Sirius's hand.

"So, I hear you make potions," Sirius said casually. "You the one making Remus's wolfbane potion?"

"Yes, I am…although if anyone asks I'm just conducting experiments with wolfbane, not treating anyone with it. They're fairly hostile towards werewolves in France, and I might run into some trouble if anyone finds out I'm treating people. Er…so…what do you do?" The moment the words left his mouth, a look of regret overtook his face.

Sirius smiled dryly. "Ah…I'm a runaway convict you know…so my main occupation is hiding out here. In other words, I sit on my arse all day and do nothing. You must've seen my picture…I'm positive the ministry here got the French ministry involved…"

"Yes, they did…" Edmund replied. "I remember seeing your pictures. I mean"—he looked around uneasily—"I mean, I know you didn't _do_ any of those crimes…Kierra told me…"

"But I _could _commit those crimes, if I wanted to…" said Sirius quite casually.

"Sorry?"

"I mean, if I wanted to be a traitor…if I wanted to kill people…thirteen people, with a single curse…I could, if I had wanted to."

"Oh—of course! Of course…if you wanted to, I'm sure…" Edmund replied. He looked to Kierra questioningly, who smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Sirius," she cut in, "if you're anything like the man I knew over fifteen years ago, you wouldn't hurt a fly."

"You'd be surprised at how unnervingly unchanged he is…" Remus muttered, who received a scowl from Sirius.

"Remember Remus, back in our sixth year? When I almost killed old Snivellus?" Sirius quipped. When Remus frowned at him, he quickly added, "Mind you, it involved a fair bit of using you and jeopardizing of our friendship—that part of the prank which I always regret—but still, I was quite capable then"—

"Yes Sirius, you're capable of killing us all this very moment and defeating Voldemort at the very next. Don't be so modest about it…" Remus turned to Edmund. "You'll have to excuse Sirius, he enjoys his jokes…"

"I don't like him at all…" Sirius said in an undertone later on during dinner.

"Why? Because you scared him into thinking you'll come down to France to kill him in his sleep?" Remus asked just as quietly, glancing around the table to make sure that the others were immersed in their own conversations.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I was just joking around. Like Kierra said, I wouldn't hurt a fly. Well, unless the fly was sucking the blood out of my mate…I'd swat him then."

"Edmund's not sucking my blood, if that's what you're implying." Remus said as he took a sip of wine from his goblet.

"Not implying anything. I just think the guy's an idiot, that's all."

"You're not giving him a chance. He's a nice guy."

"But an idiot. Come on Moony, you don't like him either. Admit it."

"He's making my potion…how can I not like him?"

"Snape made your potion a couple of years ago…did you like him?"

Remus paused to consider the matter. "Well, no. But that was different…we had a long history…he's had a bit of a reason to hate me."

"You never did anything to him though!" Sirius hissed.

"Well no, but I was tainted by association…with you and James…"

"Thanks a million, Remus. But this is the same situation!"

"How so?"

"You've got reason to not like him!"

"Who's 'him'? Snape or Edmund?"

"Edmund."

"Why should I not like him?"

"He's bloody engaged to your ex girlfriend"—

"Sirius—how many times do I have to tell you, I don't care!" Remus glanced around quickly again, realizing that he had raised his voice slightly in frustration. Thankfully, Tonks was entertaining the guests with her metamorphmagus abilities by taking on the appearances of famous witches and wizards, and the diners had their attention towards her.

"Look," he continued, lowering his tone significantly. "I'm perfectly alright with Kierra and Edmund. They're good people, and they deserve each other. So would you please stop hating Edmund on my behalf? It really isn't necessary…and you said yourself the other day, you knew I didn't care for her…"

Sirius looked disbelievingly at him. "I don't understand you, Moony." He said, ignoring Remus's last comment. "I mean, look at those two," he said, jabbing his thumb in the direction of Edmund and Kierra, who were sitting together on the other end of the table. While they were watching Tonks aptly, laughing with the others and making requests like the others, they sat very close together; Edmund had one arm wrapped around Kierra, and the other hand intertwined with Kierra's two hands. They laughed together when Tonks imitated one of her work colleagues who had a tendency to flirt with Kingsley, by sitting on top of the dinner table with her legs crossed, simpering as she batted her long lashes at Kingsley, talking about the latest word of the hunt for Sirius Black.

"Oh, Kingsley!" Tonks cooed in a high pitched, mocking voice, "you're so brave, going after that Sirius Black like that…"

Sirius winced as he heard his name in the context of a pick up line, but immediately turned his attention back to Remus. "See? Did you see those two? How close they are, and how"—

"How much they love each other?" Remus interjected. He sighed as he looked on to the happy couple. Still looking at them, he continued, "Sirius, I do see them. And they're so happy together. I'm happy for them."

Sirius sighed with resignation, and remained silent as he watched Remus watch the happy couple. Sure, he said he was happy for them…and he probably was. But he didn't have to be. He didn't have to be happy and supportive of this engagement…but that was Remus. He elected to. He made himself become happy and supportive, whether or not he really wanted to. Because it was the right thing to do…to do what you _should _do. And that was Remus. He never allowed himself choices. He did what he thought had to be done. No room for choices or dreams or hopes in Remus's world. His world consisted or reality, and the most rational way to deal with it.

Sirius finally looked away from Remus in order to pour himself some more wine. They always joked about Sirius's maturity being stunted in Azkaban, preserving his youthful, immature self in this thirty-three year old body. But he was one up on the mature, grown up Remus. At least he knew a dream when he saw one, and he knew how to pursue it if he wanted it.

_Blue Moon,_

_You saw me standing alone_

_Without a dream in my heart_

_Without a love of my own_

_-Richard Rodgers, 1934 "Blue Moon"_


	47. Chapter 48: Premonitions and Providence

Chapter 49: Premonitions and Providence

_She was wearing a long, white gown that flowed down to her feet, and left a train of silky white fabric behind her. It wasn't the most comfortable dress. The silky fabric tightly hugged her torso, disallowing her to breathe easily, and seeming to cut off the circulation of her blood to her arms, which were also tightly bound by the silky white fabric of the dress. But it was worth it, because she looked beautiful. The neckline of her dress dipped low, revealing a fair amount of cleavage. She smiled broadly as she turned to her left, where Edmund stood next to her, beaming down at her. He offered her a bouquet of off-white colored flowers, and she took them._

_She put the flowers to her nose and inhaled their soft scent. It was a little too soft, Kierra thought as she inhaled again. Why was the smell so faint? But she had little time to ponder over the matter, as Edmund now took her hand in his and led her forward. Neither of them spoke as they walked down the aisle. Wait—they were in the church from which they would be married! But why was Edmund walking her down the aisle, instead of Harvey? And where were all the guests? Kierra looked from side to side, only to see the many rows of empty pews. Where was everyone? Better yet, where was her veil? She was supposed to have a veil! And now that she thought about it, this wasn't the wedding gown she had picked out. In fact, was it even a wedding gown? It was so inappropriately low-cut, no bride could ever agree to wear such a revealing dress on her wedding. Sure it was white—only, was it? As Kierra looked down at her dress again, it didn't look so white anymore. It seemed to go to the same off-white shade as her bouquet of flowers…_

_As they reached the altar, Kierra and Edmund stopped and turned to face each other. Edmund smiled calmly at Kierra, but the latter felt slightly uneasy._

_"What are we doing here?" she asked softly._

_"Practicing, of course!" Edmund replied, still smiling broadly at Kierra. "We need to make sure we get it all right now…we don't want to mess it up later."_

_Kierra nodded, though she still didn't quite understand. A sudden movement though, caught through the corner of her eye, made her turn around immediately, and what she saw made her jump back and nearly trip over her gown._

_"Dad!"_

_He was taking a seat in the back pew, and upon settling himself, he looked up at the couple and smiled at them._

_Kierra looked at him uncertainly. He was there, sitting…yet, he didn't seem real…he didn't seem solid. But it wasn't his ghost, was it? No…she had seen ghosts before, they were more transparent. Her dad looked more solid than a ghost, yet not solid enough to be real. _

_"Dad?" she asked, with even more uncertainty in her voice. He just continued to smile serenely at her. He suddenly glanced back though, and following his gaze, Kierra looked up to see another person entering the chapel._

_"Mum…" she murmured. She felt her eyes well up with tears. It had been over a year since her mother's death…she never thought she'd see that face again…_

_Her mother took a seat next to Kierra's father, and she too looked up at the couple and smiled peacefully. _

_"You guys…" Kierra murmured. "What are you…" her voice trailed off. Why were they just sitting there, smiling at her? Weren't they going to talk to her? Didn't they miss her, the way she missed them?_

_Of course not, they were together now…_

_Kierra felt Edmund's arm wrap around her waist. She looked up at him and smiled nervously. There was something so eerie about this situation. Not so much her parents sitting there in front of her—well no, that too—but something else…something wasn't right about this…why did it feel so empty in that chapel? Why did she feel so empty and hollow inside?_

_She turned back to face her parents, but now, something else caught her eyes, across the aisle to the other side of the room, in the middle row of pews sat another not-so-solid figure. One she hadn't seen in many years…_

_"James…" she breathed._

_James Potter sat nonchalantly in the middle pew with his legs propped up on the pew in front of him. He reclined in his seat, his hands resting behind his head, and his glasses resting crookedly on his nose. He looked so young—about 21 or 22—but that was how he had left them, hadn't he? He was just a young man…He too smiled at Kierra. But it was not the boyish, mischievous grin that she had missed dearly at times. Nor was it the tranquil-looking smile her parents wore. No…it was a sad smile, one that she had rarely seen on his face... Like he was happy, but with something troubling him in the back of his mind…_

_"James…" she said again._

_His smile brightened slightly at the sound of his name._

_"What are you"—_

_James laughed lightly, causing Kierra to jump back in surprise at the sudden sound. His appearance was a bit shadowy, but his voice was very distinct. It was exactly as she remembered it…_

_"I wanted to see you…" he said quietly, smiling that boyish smile of his._

_"I missed you." Replied Kierra._

_James laughed again. "Why?" _

_Kierra laughed as well, though she was not quite sure why. Perhaps it was just the contagiousness of James's laugh… "I'm getting married, James…" she finally said._

_James's face once again fell to a sad smile as he nodded. "Yeah, I can see that…"_

_Kierra continued to stare at him, wondering what could be troubling him. But her thoughts were put on a hold when she felt Edmund's arm pulling away from her waist. She turned to her fiancé, only to see him walk back down the aisle and exit the chapel._

_"Edmund!" she called after him. "Where are you going?"_

_But he didn't answer. He continued on out of the chapel. A moment later, Kierra's parents got up as well and followed Edmund out._

_"Mum—dad!" Kierra exclaimed. Where were they all going? She picked up her dress at her knees and hurried down the altar, but in her rush she tripped over her skirt, sending her flying face forward to the ground. She lifted her face quickly just in time to see her parents going out the door, and to see James getting up as well._

_"Mum…dad…don't leave me!" she cried. But they did not acknowledge her cries. Could they even hear her? They had to…James had, so why couldn't they? As Kierra picked herself off the ground, she watched James head towards the door. Was there even any point in calling his name?_

_"James…"_

_James looked over his shoulder as he pulled the handle of the door and grinned at her. "Don't worry," he said simply, "it's not so bad…"_

_"James"—_

_But it was too late—the door had slammed shut, and Kierra found her self all alone in the dark chapel. She glanced around the dark room, unsure of what she was even looking for. Finally, she decided there was no point in standing there in that gloomy little chapel—it was giving her goose bumps just being there. She headed outside, in hopes of finding her parents or James, or even Edmund._

_She came outside, but only to meet more darkness. It was late at night, and there wasn't a single star in the sky. Well no, there was one star in the sky—but only one. Kierra thought this strange as she searched the vast expanse of sky above her. There was the moon, which was full tonight, but that was all. How could there only be one star in the sky? This star alone shone brightly in its solitude—it was actually one of the brightest stars she had ever seen. But as she continued to stare at it, its luster seemed to slowly diminish, until it hung very dully in the sky and eventually disappeared into the darkness._

_Kierra wondered what happened to stars when they died out…if only she had paid more attention in astronomy when she was in school, she'd know…Her eyes lingered on the spot where the beautiful star twinkled moments before. Suddenly she remembered that she had left her bouquet in the chapel. She stood hesitantly in the moonlight, wondering if she should go back inside to get it. In all honestly, she didn't really feel like it—mainly because she was too scared to go back to the emptiness inside. And there was still a chance she would see the others outside…maybe if she lingered a bit longer…_

Kierra rolled over tiredly in bed, desperate for a few more minutes of sleep. But the sound of her alarm clock continued to nag her until she pulled herself out of bed to shut it off.

'No more morning classes…' she thought to herself as she headed to the bathroom. She made a face when she saw that the toilet seat was left up. If she had a galleon for every time she told Edmund to put the seat down…but alas, he had already left for work and so she had no one to chastise…

As Kierra washed her face, she thought back at last night's dream. It had certainly felt strange. Being in that empty chapel with those four people—three of whom which were dead. It seemed so strange that they were all gone now…she still had a hard time believing that her father was gone, his image was so fresh and raw in her mind. But his mother, and James…it had been some time since either of their deaths, they felt like distant memories. But last night she saw them—it had been so strange—the numbness she had felt at the times of their deaths rose once again in her. She hadn't seen any of them die…their deaths were so sudden…she hadn't even gotten a chance to say goodbye. And now, they had appeared to her in her dream…but had it actually been them? Or was it just a figment of her imagination, as dreams tended to be?

Kierra glanced at her clock as she threw her robes on over her dress. She had five minutes until her first class started. If only she had a few extra minutes to go through her dream interpretations book…it had been such a bizarre dream! It would have to wait until the day was done, Kierra thought as she hurried out the door.

* * *

"Good afternoon, Sirius!" Dominique said cheerily as she burst into Buckbeak's room where Sirius was emptying out a sack of ferrets onto the floor.

Sirius glanced over his shoulder briefly before turning his attention back to Buckbeak. "Hey Dominique…" he replied.

Dominique furrowed her brow as she watched him pet Buckbeak's head, who was too busy devouring his lunch to notice her enter the room. He looked grumpy and exhausted—a mood he tended to be in a lot these days. She wondered if he even remembered today…

He turned around, only to find Dominique still standing at the door, looking at him somberly. He forced a smile as he passed her through the door. "You're back a little early…" he finally said as he led Dominique towards the kitchen. "I thought you had a concert last night."

"I did…but I thought I'd come here straight away…I really wanted to see you." She replied hastily as she picked up her pace, trying to keep up with Sirius.

"Well, nice of you to come by." Sirius began to rummage through the cupboards. "Anything to drink? Butterbeer? Firewhiskey"—

Dominique laughed. "Firewhiskey? Sirius, it's not even noon!"

Sirius shrugged as he pulled out two bottles of butterbeer and handed one to Dominique. "Time is futile."

Dominique's eyes met briefly with Sirius's as she popped open her bottle. The latter looked away though as he brought the drink to his lips. She watched as he closed his eyes, taking a sip of his butterbeer—no, more like a heavy swig—the way the muscles in his neck pulsated as he downed each gulp. She fought the temptation to ask what he meant by time being futile. Perhaps a change of subject. Perhaps today…or…no, she wouldn't bring it up. She wanted to see if he remembered…

"So…" Dominique took a sip of her own butterbeer. "Remus left for Aveyron last night, didn't he?"

Sirius set his butterbeer down on the table with a hard clunk, catching Dominique off-guard. "Yeah…" he answered ruefully. "Starts his classes today…"

"Ah, I see…and he's coming back in a couple of days, isn't he?" she reminded him, realizing that perhaps bringing up Remus wasn't such a great idea.

Sirius nodded and took another gulp of butterbeer. "He's coming back Thursday …"

"Great."

"Bet he'll have loads to tell us…" Sirius drawled, aiming his empty bottle at the rubbish bin. Quite effortlessly, he tossed the bottle, landing it straight in the bin. "He really loves to teach."

Dominique smiled. "Yes, he does…I remember when he was working at Hogwarts, all of his letters always had some mention about school. The kids really seemed to like him."

"The kids really seemed to like who?"

Dominique and Sirius turned around to see Molly Weasley enter the kitchen.

"Oh, hi Molly!" Dominique greeted her. "We were just talking about Remus"—

"Did you just get here?" Sirius interjected, furrowing his brows at the intrusion.

Molly smiled wryly as she passed the table where Sirius and Dominique sat and headed to the kitchen area. "Yes, I thought I would just let myself in. I didn't want to provoke your mother."

Sirius nodded, but did not make a reply. He simply glared at the woman who had begun to busy herself in the kitchen.

"I just remembered that I forgot some of my cutlery here, and Arthur's having a few people over tonight for dinner. A few people from the ministry…trying to stay on good terms with them, you know…"

"Of course…" Sirius said, getting up to join Molly. "I think I saw some steak knives in one of these drawers. I'm positive they were yours…"

Molly went to the drawers that Sirius had indicated at and continued her search. "So, the kids are fond of Remus, you were saying?"

"Oh—yeah" Dominique said with a grin. "We were talking about how he's probably doing at work. I know he was a bit anxious when I last talked to him, about the students liking him…but I think he'll do fine."

"Definitely," Molly agreed. "Ah, here they are"—she pulled out a handful of steak knives from one of the bottom drawers and wrapped them in her apron—"but yes, Remus will do great. He taught all but two of my children, and they all liked him…which reminds me…I need to send a howler Fred and George's way…"

Dominique laughed. "Oh dear, what did they do?"

Molly sighed. "According to McGonagall, they almost killed some 4th year Slytherin, with some sort of new, lethal invention of theirs…They have so many, I can't even remember what it was. Anyway, they've landed themselves a couple of weeks' detention…"

Sirius chuckled. "They're quite a pair. They remind me a bit of myself and James when we were at Hogwarts…"

"Oh, you two couldn't have been that bad…" replied Molly.

"No, I think Fred and George can't be that bad…" Dominique offered with a laugh. "Though they do sound like your successors…especially when they had your map"—

"Map?" Molly cut in. Sirius gave a sharp look at Dominique, who in turn looked to him regretfully. She hadn't known that Molly didn't know about the map…

"Sorry…" she muttered.

"What map?" Molly repeated, looking from Dominique to Sirius for an answer.

At last, Sirius sighed. "The marauder's map. My friends and I made it when we were at Hogwarts…"

"You and James?" Molly asked.

Sirius nodded. "And Remus and Peter…it's just a map of the entire school…and it shows you where everyone is at every given moment…we just used it for pranks. Anyway, old Filch confiscated it, and thankfully never figured out how to use it, since it's password protected. When your sons came to Hogwarts, they somehow got a hold of it and figured out how to use it…"

"How? How do you know all this? They told you?" Molly demanded.

Sirius shook his head. "No, Harry did. They gave it to him back when I escaped…I think because they wanted him to be able to sneak off to Hogsmeade…so yeah, he was just explaining to me when he was here a few days ago how he got it…"

Molly nodded, a sudden understanding appearing to dawn on her. "So that's why Fred and George were so short of breath when they met you…it wasn't out of fear…it was out of respect!"

Dominique laughed. "Oh, I love these two already—I really want to meet them!"

"You just missed them…" Sirius replied. "all of the kids left for school a few days ago…but hey, during the holidays, Molly, you could bring your kids over…and Harry could come here"—

"Absolutely not." Molly cut in.

"Excuse me?"

Molly sighed and looked derisively at Sirius. "He'll have to get special permission and whatnot…"

"I think Dumbledore will be able to swing it…" Sirius replied tersely.

"Dumbledore's a busy man," said Molly, "and don't you remember who's at Hogwarts? Umbridge is going to be keeping a close eye on"—

"Harry…" Sirius finished, forcing himself to keep his tone even. "Even more reason to bring him here for the holidays…he can get out of that hag's grasp"—

"She'll be keeping a hawk's eye on him…if she sees him leave, she'll want to know where…do you want our headquarters to be discovered?"

"Course…forgot that this is headquarters before it's my house…" Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Sirius, try not to be so difficult." Molly snapped. "Ultimately, this will be Dumbledore's decision, and I'm positive he'll want to keep Harry close by, at Hogwarts…don't you agree, Dominique?"

"Oh! Um"—Dominique looked nervously at Molly, and then at Sirius, both whom were looking at her expectantly. "Well…um…I can see how it might be good for him to be at Hogwarts…but…the headquarters is fairly safe too, Molly…and…I don't know…maybe I'm a little biased…I'm hoping to meet him here myself…." She laughed lightly, wishing the tension in the room would lessen.

"Well," Molly said, gathering her cutlery once more, "I'm only thinking of Harry's safety. I suppose we'll just wait until the holidays come to see what the headmaster wishes…"

"Right." Dominique cut in before Sirius could start. "Let's wait until we cross that bridge, shall we?" She looked over at Sirius warily, who was glaring at Molly.

"Right…" he said simply.

"Well, I should head out then…" Molly said rather stiffly. Dominique quickly got up and followed her out of the kitchen.

"Sure…we'll see you later then, Molly. Say hello to Arthur and the family for us!" Dominique said politely. As she shut the door after Molly and turned to head back to the kitchen, she sighed. Finally, all alone again with Sirius. Perhaps she should just remind him what day it was…he had probably just lost track of the days, and hadn't realized that today was their wedding anniversary…

When she returned to the kitchen, Sirius looked up at her and scowled.

"Who does she think she is anyway? Barging in here and telling me how to raise my godson?"

"Sirius," Dominique said quietly as she took a seat by him, "Harry doesn't need raising…he's fifteen years old…"

"Oh, you know what I mean…" Sirius grumbled. "He's still my responsibility. Just because she saw to him for a few years while I was in prison doesn't mean anything."

"She just cares about him, Sirius. She's a mother, it's in her nature!"

"She has plenty of other kids to take care of." Sirius replied.

"But she's spent quite a bit of time with him…she can't help it…she's attached! You have to understand from a mother's perspective…a woman's perspective…that's just how we are." Dominique added, smiling weakly at Sirius.

"That's fine if she's attached…but she can't just go and take him for herself! You know, just the other day, when the kids were all going off to school, I wanted to go see Harry off"—

"…and you did, Sirius. You told me"—

"I know, I went as Snuffles"—

"Who's Snuffles?"

"It's what Harry and their friends refer to me as when they're out…"

"Aww…."

"I know…" Sirius said with a proud smile. His smile fell though when he remembered to continue his story. "Anyway, I went and saw them off…and when we came back here, Molly went off on me for coming along…says I didn't act dog-like enough…"

"Oh Sirius, you weren't showing off for the kids by doing tricks, were you?"

Sirius looked down at the table and ran a hand through his long, mess of hair. "Maybe…just to entertain them…I saw some frightened looking first years on the train…thought they needed to be cheered up a bit…"

Dominique laughed. "Oh, Sirius—you have to be careful though"—

"D, I'm sick of people telling me to be careful…It's all I've been hearing these past few months…'be careful not to get caught, Sirius', 'be careful with Harry, Sirius'…why are people telling me to be careful with Harry? Do they think I'm an idiot or something? That I'm ten years old? He's like a friend to me…like a _son_ to me…"

"I'm sure people understand that"—

"If people understood that," Sirius cut in, "they wouldn't be advising me. No adult tells another adult how to raise their children…and Harry is like a son. And I know he sees me almost like a father...it just really ticks me off when people think I'm talking crazy…you know a few weeks ago, when Harry first came here? Molly actually had the audacity to say—mind you, in front of Harry too—that I'm getting confused between him and James…that I actually think I have my best friend back…she was talking to me like I was mad!"

Dominique frowned. This conversation was going nowhere. "Well," she started slowly, "do you feel like you have your best friend back? I mean…since you said he's like a friend to you…"

"No, of course not. I mean…he's like James in a lot of ways…but I think I can distinguish the two from each other." He said bitterly. "James was my best friend. But Harry…I mean…I regard him as a friend…but like I said earlier, I also sort of regard him as a son…I didn't have that with James."

Dominique nodded and let out a sigh. She wondered if he was done ranting yet…

"Listen Sirius, just forget about it, ok? There's no use of getting angry over it…" Dominique said with a hint of exasperation in her voice. "Let's just talk about something else, hmm?"

"Sure…"

"So…know what day it is?" Dominique asked, smiling coyly at Sirius.

"Er—Monday—why?"

Dominique frowned. "You don't know…"

"Don't know what?" Sirius asked.

"The significance of this day!" Dominique exclaimed, frustrated.

Sirius paused to think. Then is suddenly hit him. He smiled impishly as he took Dominique's hands in his own. "Of course…"

Dominique giggled as she felt his grasp. "You remember?"

Sirius nodded as he drew Dominique closer to himself. "Yes…it's Monday…the day _everyone_ is too busy at work to come here…so…with Remus gone, and Kreacher off in his room snogging my mum's bloomers, we have this house all to ourselves—hey! What?"

Dominique had snatched her hands away from Sirius and was now glaring at him.

"What?" he asked again, looking at Dominique with mingled curiosity and irritability. "Was there something else about today that I'm supposed to know about?"

"Of course there is!" Dominique snapped.

Sirius looked at her expectantly. "Well? Do you plan on telling me?"

Dominique rolled her eyes as she got up from her seat. "If you can't remember, why the hell should I bother telling you?"

"Fine, if you want to be immature about this—and where the hell are you going?" Sirius called after her.

"To cool down!"

Sirius made no reply, and only watched Dominique tear out of the kitchen.

Just then, Dominique popped her head back in. "Oh, by the way," she added, "Molly was right—you _do_ have Harry and James confused! And I doubt they're _that_ alike. At least James never got in trouble with the ministry!" And with that, she stomped off towards the door, setting off Mrs. Black's earsplitting shrieks.

"Hey—the charges were dropped!" he shouted after her. And fuming at Dominique's sudden outburst, Sirius retreated down the hall to tend to his mother's portrait.

* * *

Remus paced around his office, glancing up at the clock every few moments. Maybe he should've waited in his classroom instead. Class would be starting soon, and now he would be making a grand entrance in front of all his students. But if he waited in his classroom as the students filed in, he would have to deal with the awkwardness of waiting with his students…

He knew he was being overly analytical, but he couldn't help it…he wanted to make a good impression. He looked at his clock again. 12:58 p.m. Time to head to class. He ran a hand through his hair as he grabbed his briefcase and left his office. He tiredly rubbed his left eye with one hand as he made his way to the classroom. Room 14. If only he were more well-rested. He never should have stayed up so late, practicing his French—going over his lesson plan in French—just to make sure it was still up to snuff. And it was. He knew it was; yet he found himself reading the French translation of "New Theories in Defense Against the Dark Arts" at two o'clock in the morning, just to make sure he had it all down. Kierra had been pestering him every moment she saw him, asking him if he had been reviewing his French. Apparently it was a very big deal to speak 'proper' French in this school…so really, he had no choice but to stay up half the night to review it. The only consequence to this of course was his fatigue…and of course, it didn't help either that the full moon was in a week.

'You know this stuff backwards and forwards….' Remus told himself as he entered the classroom. He smiled at the small group of students that were chatting amongst themselves when he came in. Kierra had originally scheduled him to teach the larger, more basic defense classes, but then at the last minute did a switch and gave him the more advanced classes that were much smaller in size. This particular class seemed to have no more than twenty students—his own personal preference—the smaller, the better.

However, this group of students was a bit older than what he was used to. At Hogwarts, and even in his private tutoring experiences, he usually taught students from ages 11-18. Most of these students seemed to be in their early twenties. True, he was quite a bit older than them, but still, they were all adults now.

"Bon jour, les étudiants. Ceci Avancé la Magie de Défense, et je suis Remus Lupin." He said with a small smile. "J'espire cela—

Remus paused in his introduction to look at the class. The majority of the students were either grinning broadly at him, or trying very hard to suppress their laughs. He wondered if there was something in his teeth. Or perhaps is accent was really awful…

"Er…je suis desolé" he apologized, "Quelque chose mauvais est-il?" He looked uncertainly at the class, wondering what was wrong.

"You ah ze new guy, no?" a petite brunette in the front row asked.

:"Er….yes, this is my first class here…" Remus answered, switching to English. He glanced around the class, all of whom looked very amused now. "Is there something funny about that?"

The brunette spoke up again. "Oiu…you see, monsieur, at our school, ze staff like to pull eh prank un ze new professors…"

"Vich professor 'ad you?" asked the blond boy sitting next to the brunette. "Monsieur Francois? 'E always 'as the worst pranks… "

Remus shook his head. "Nakofsky, it seems. She's the only professor here I've been in touch with. I'm afraid though, that I don't quite understand the prank…"

"You see, sir," started a blond girl in the middle row, whose accent seemed to be very light, "you were speaking to us in Francais…did Professor Nakofsky tell you that our classes are in French?"

"Er—yes—why?" Remus asked.

The girl laughed lightly. "We 'ave all of our classes in English…We always 'ave…"

"Oh…" Remus said simply as laughter stirred through the classroom.

"Professor Nakofsky always does very stupid pranks that aren't very funny…" the girl continued. "She iz known for it."

Remus smiled, not quite sure what to make of the situation. So, Kierra had pulled a prank on him? Well, it hadn't been a very good one…it hadn't even been remotely embarrassing…

"Alright then," he addressed the class, quieting them down, "now that we've gotten that all settled, let's get started, shall we?"

Soon, Remus had become quite occupied with his lessons and had forgotten about Kierra's silly prank, and his first-day-of-school-jitters. He was too busy going over advanced defensive charms with his class.

"So, now that you all know where the fidelius charm gets its name, can anyone explain how it works?"

He was met by silence.

"Come—no one?" he asked. "Take some guesses. If fidelius is derived from the concept of fidelity…" he trailed off, hoping that someone would raise their hand. Finally, a blond named Janette did so.

"Zis iz a charm wid ze secret keeper, I think…" she said uncertainly.

"That's correct." Remus said with a smile. "Can you tell us anything about the secret keeper's role in this particular charm, Janette?"

"Well, ze secret keeper must be a very loyal person, because zey are to keep secrets wiz'in their soul…"

"Right," said Remus. "So the purpose of the fidelius charm is to conceal a secret within the soul of a chosen person, and as Janette put it perfectly, this person is called the secret keeper. He or she obviously must be chosen carefully, because the only way the secret can be uncovered is if the secret keeper decides to reveal it. One of the main characteristics to look for when choosing a secret keeper of course then, is loyalty."

"Now," Remus continued as he turned to the blackboard and began writing on it, "the fidelius charm is an extremely complicated and advanced charm, so I want you to take careful notes here. In a week, when you all have had enough practice, we're going to test it out—each of you will find a partner in or out of this class, though preferably someone who has taken this class and has mastered the fidelius charm, and you all will be performing the charm, alright?"

"Very cool…" Remus heard one of his students mutter as he continued to write on the board. "so if you find someone loyal enough to you, zey can keep all your secrets! They could 'ide your diary!"

Remus smiled as finished writing notes on the board and turned around to face the class. "Not exactly, Miss Rousseau…though I suppose you _could_ hide the location of your diary in a person's soul, this charm is too painstakingly complex to use on such a small secret. The fidelius charm is usually used on much bigger secrets. For example, hiding a valuable, or hiding the location of a person"—

"A person?" a student in the back asked.

"Well, yes…" replied Remus. "remember, the fidelius charm is used to hide any kind of information. The location of where a person is classifies as a piece of information, right?"

"But what if you ask the secret keeper where a person iz, and zey don't tell you…and you end up in the location where ze hidden person iz…will you see them?"

"Excellent question. And the answer is no, you won't see them. That's the power of the charm."

"Professor, 'ave you ever used zis charm?" another student piped up. The rest of the class looked intently at him.

"Outside from classroom purposes? No…" he answered truthfully. "Alright, so, kindly read the first two chapters of your book for next class. That'll be all for today."

As the classroom slowly emptied out, Remus gathered his papers and set them in his briefcase, feeling quite glad that no one had looked at him strangely for quickly dismissing the question of his use of the fidelius charm. They seemed to be more interested in their upcoming assignment of performing the charm by the way they were excitedly discussing it as they left the class.

Overall, his first class had gone well—after the minor confusion of Kierra's sorry excuse for a prank was cleared up, of course. What kind of prank had that been anyway? Remus smiled inwardly as he headed to his office to get ready for his next class. Even he, Remus, had a record for performing better pranks. Of course, he had rarely initiated them—but still—he was a marauder, and had seldom sat out on a chance for mischief with his friends. Perhaps he could teach Miss Nakofsky a thing or two about pranking etiquettes…

* * *

Kierra hurried down the spiral stone staircase, wishing that the chateau were a bit smaller. Class had started a minute ago, and she had another four flights to go down. It was three minutes past the hour when she finally made it to the designated floor. She walked quickly down the halls, smiling briefly at passerby. Of all classrooms, she just _had_ to assign herself the one at the end of the hall…

Room 147. Finally, she had reached it. As she neared the heavy wooden door, however, she found a sign magically stuck on it that read 'Magical Architecture has been moved to room 637'.

'637?'

Kierra swore under her breath as she turned back around. That was another six floors up—where she had come from! But who, Kierra wondered, had put the sign up? Who, besides herself had the authority to change classrooms? Oh, well, there was the headmaster of course. Perhaps he had done it, though why she was not told about it was beyond her…

At long last, Kierra reached the sixth floor, huffing as she tried to catch her breath. She swung open the door of room 637 and stepped inside, feeling thoroughly embarrassed for arriving to class ten minutes late.

"Bon jour, everyone…" she said briskly, taking a quick look the class, which looked slightly startled at her entrance. "I'm so sorry I'm late, but"—

She stopped abruptly as she took in her surroundings. Remus was standing at the front of the room with his wand out, looking like he was about to do some demonstration for the students.

"Er—can I help you?" he asked her, dropping his wand at his side. All of the students turned around to look at her curiously.

Her brows wrinkled up as she looked at Remus. "Um…I'm sorry…this is 637, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. Are you auditing my class, Kierra?" Remus asked amusedly.

She frowned. "No, I'm not auditing your class." She snapped. "I have my class…it was supposed to be up here…"

"Was it?"

"Yeah…well, no. It was scheduled somewhere else…down in 147. But someone put a sign up there, saying the class was moved up here."

"147 you say?" asked Remus.

"Er—yes. Why?"

"Did you go inside to see if anyone was there?"

"No…why?" Kierra asked again, wondering what these queries were leading to.

"Well, I believe I passed that room on my way up here." he replied. "I'm certain I saw some students going in there for a class…"

"But what about that sign?" Kierra asked.

"I didn't see one up when I passed by. Maybe someone tagged it on right before you got there…"

"Why would anyone do that?"

"To throw you off, maybe?"

"Why would anyone do that?" Kierra repeated.

"For kicks…"

Several of Remus's students laughed at his comment, causing Kierra to blush slightly. She looked squarely at Remus, who seemed to be trying very hard not to smile at her. All in vain—a small smile crept around the corners of his mouth. Kierra gave him a sharp look before turning on her heel to leave.

"They want kicks? I'll give them a few kicks…" she muttered.

"…or maybe they wanted to give the tables a turn." Remus offered.

She turned back around and stared at Remus.

"Hope you find your class." He said, smiling pleasantly at her. And with that, he turned his attention back to his own class, discussing the factors that allow a person to create a patronus—in English.

Kierra's eyebrows went up several centimeters as her eyes lingered on him.

'Damnit…'

Kierra turned once again on her heel to leave, quietly shutting the door behind her. Damnit, damnit, damnit…The handwriting on the sign…why didn't she bother to look at it? She knew his handwriting…she knew the headmaster's handwriting…she would have been able to tell. Damnit.

Kierra arrived at room 147 twenty minutes late. She tore the sign off the door, which she immediately recognized to be the handwriting of Monsieur Lupin, and entered her class. Several of the students had been getting out of their seats when she came in, but immediately sat back down at her appearance.

"Sorry…" she said immediately as she dropped her briefcase on the desk with a loud thud. "So sorry I'm late. Seems I had a bit of a misunderstanding today with the locations of the class…won't happen again."

* * *

Remus made his way down the chateau halls at the end of the day, very much oblivious to his surroundings. He had so much work to do before heading back to London. Already he had a briefcase full of papers to grade, and next week's class lectures to prepare, and even more papers to grade from his other classes he would be teaching tomorrow. And his wolfbane potion of course…he had to get that from Edmund, today in fact. Remus was so busy scheduling out the rest of his evening that he didn't take notice of his steps until he stubbed his toe against something rooted in the floor, which caused him to fall forward, hitting the stone floor knees first and then breaking his fall with his hands. He immediately sat up, despite the throbbing pain in his knees which were probably scraped with cuts now, and looked around. His eyes fell on a lovely pair of legs which, as he gazed his shift upwards, he discovered belonged to an equally lovely face that was presently wearing a very complacent smirk.

Remus grabbed his briefcase and pulled himself to his full height, which was barely a few inches more than the woman in front of him.

"That wasn't very nice." said Remus with a scowl.

"Nor was the little prank you played on me." Kierra replied, still wearing her smirk. She was standing with a few of her work colleagues; all of whom Remus had met previously, but none of whose names he could remember. "Making me run all around the castle…and I was wearing heels today" she added, kicking her right leg out with which she had tripped him, to show him her heels, which looked like a modest two inch heel in Remus's opinion.

"Those aren't that high…"

Kierra scowled. "Yeah, you would know…" Her friends sniggered at her remark.

"Your prank wasn't very nice either…" Remus replied. "I stayed up half the night practicing my French, you know…"

One of Kierra's colleagues rolled his eyes. "Oh Kierra," he muttered, "we ah never going to let you do ze new teacher pranks again! You are ze most uncreative person I 'ave ever met!"

"Shut it, Pierre…" Kierra said shortly, though she smiled sweetly at him.

"No, I'm inclined to agree…" Remus said; finding out Pierre's name suddenly caused him to remember the names of the other two colleagues standing with them. He turned back to Kierra though and added "So I thought I ought to literally teach you a lesson in marauding. You know, show you how it's really done"—

"Mah-ruh-ding?" the woman whose name Remus thought was Elinor asked.

"Trouble making..." Kierra replied shortly. She smiled sheepishly at Remus as she remembered the innocent look on his face when she had first barged into his classroom. "Yes, you'd have known all about that…I forgot."

"Yes Remus," the other woman named Jude chimed in, "Kierra told us about ze joke you played on her…it was much funnier than her joke!"

Remus laughed lightly and smiled at Kierra, which looked uncannily like the smirk Kierra had worn a minute ago. She in turn smacked Remus on the arm for his imitation. "So how were your classes then?" she asked, wanting to change the subject.

He smiled earnestly at her and nodded. "They went alright I think…"

The group continued to chat about their classes for several more minutes. Every now and then his colleagues would fall back into French, speaking very swiftly with each other. He understood them for the most part, but admittedly found it a bit difficult to contribute to the conversation, as his French didn't sound nearly as fluid as theirs, and so he found himself remaining almost silent during those brief reversions to French. He also noticed Kierra grow quiet during those times as well, making him feel a bit better about being a foreigner in this school. Something of his feelings of estrangement must have shown on his face though, as Jude had smiled briefly at him and switched back to English.

"Oui," she said with a sigh, "I 'ate ven I lose things…and it was my favorite bra too!"

Remus raised an eyebrow. Is this what they had been talking about? He had heard something about purple and sequins…and something about doing push-ups. Er no…wait, maybe no 'doing', maybe it was just…push-ups. Perhaps he wasn't at such a loss after all for having mediocre French…

"It 'as been missing for about a month now! I 'ave another bra in purple, of course…but zat was ze only one with sequins zat I 'ave ever 'ad! I will miss it…" Jude continued, looking so genuinely concerned about the issue that Remus had a hard time suppressing a laugh.

"What?" Jude asked, turning to Remus.

"He thinks your accent is funny…" Kierra answered simply before Remus could so much open his mouth.

"That's not true"—

"My accent?" Jude asked defensively. "I only spoke in ze English so you wouldn't feel left out!"

Kierra laughed. "He knows French, for the hundredth time, Jude!" she said, rolling her eyes.

"Then why do you always speak English to him?"

"It's a habit!"

"And just for the record," Remus cut in, "I don't think your accent's funny at all. Kierra here"—Remus good-naturedly-yet-gruffly nudged Kierra in the arm—"she was just joking, really…I just thought your story was funny, that's all."

Pierre laughed lightly. "Don't we all" he said, "though I am somewhat tired of hearing Jude's lost an' found stories…zey are somewhat routine now…"

"Are not!" Jude snapped.

"Are too…" Elinor said good-naturedly. "You do seem to lose things a lot…"

"Especially your undergarments…" Kierra added. "Though I doubt you're at a loss. Sequins, I ask you…"

"Oh, let's not get started on ze sequins again…" Pierre muttered, rolling his eyes.

Jude blushed. Remus looked at his watch to save himself from having to say anything, and upon seeing the time, decided it was time to go.

"Oh, are you leaving?" Kierra asked, as she noticed Remus glancing at his watch. He nodded. "I'll walk you then. I should head home as well."

Remus and Kierra bid the others goodbye and headed outside and walked under the pink and orange sky.

* * *

"I swear that Jude is so scatterbrained…" Kierra muttered as they reached the end of the school grounds and crossed the bridge over the lake which separated the school from the rest of the town. "A few days ago she lost an earring. A couple of weeks ago she lost a pair of knickers…"

Remus simple nodded and said "yeah". He wasn't quite sure of what else to say about a woman he hardly knew in regards to her underwear, especially when she spoke so openly about it.

"I know we could just disapparate," Kierra said after a few moments of walking in silence, "but the walk home is just so pleasant, especially around sunset. And it's not that long of a walk anyway."

Remus nodded. "Of course not." He replied. "I actually prefer to walk when I can. Our kind can be so lazy sometimes, using magic for every little thing."

"True, true…" Kierra replied. She laughed a little. "Unfortunately for me I'm marrying the laziest of wizards."

Remus smiled slightly as they continued to walk through Fait Alley. "Edmund's the sort who apparates around the house, isn't he?"

Kierra laughed. "He does do that from time to time, when he's in a hurry. Which reminds me, I've got to go off on him when I get home. He left the toilet seat up again the morning"—

"You guys live together?" Remus asked abruptly. Kierra stopped short. They had reached the flat she shared with Edmund. She looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

"I mean," Remus said quickly, "that just came as a surprise, that's all. You never told me you guys lived together. Nothing wrong with it…"

Kierra slowly nodded and then began to dig through her purse, in search of her keys. "Yeah…we've been living together for almost a year now. That's why I was wary of my dad approving of Edmund, as I told you a while back. He didn't like the idea of us living together…said we were 'living in sin'…ah, found 'em…" Kierra said, pulling out her keys. "Luckily," she continued, "dad liked him a lot when they met…so, I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Sure"—

"Unless you'd like to come in!" Kierra interjected, pointing a thumb at the flat. "I've yet to show you around"—

"Maybe another time." Remus replied. "I should be heading back to my own place."

Kierra nodded. "Alright then. And you're heading back to Sirius's for the rest of the week, after your classes tomorrow?"

"That I am. But not before we do a bit of Voldemort-awareness-raising. We're scheduled to have dinner with Elinor's family, aren't we?"

"Yes, tomorrow at 7. I talked to her and her husband a week ago, and they seemed a bit receptive about Voldemort's return. It'll be great if we can get them on board with the order. Elinor's husband, Jacques, actually works for the French ministry of magic, in the department of magical law enforcement. They'd be a huge asset in getting the minister's support."

"Such a shame we've got to resolve to the French ministry, since our wonderful minister of Britain is a complete dunce and too narrow-minded to see the danger our world is in." Remus muttered.

Kierra shook her head and sighed. "Fudge is an idiot. In a few months, he'll be sorry he ever snubbed Dumbledore…"

"I hope you're right." Remus replied. He smiled feebly as he looked at Kierra once more. "Well, best I head off now. I'll see you tomorrow then."

Kierra smiled back. "See you then."

* * *

As Remus bustled around the kitchen of his own flat twenty minutes later, he wondered if he had been a bit rude to Kierra on their walk from work. He had been in all honesty too tired to go inside her place. He had wanted nothing more than to get away from her, in fact. He wanted to be alone, to reflect on his day, to write Sirius and Dominique, to bury himself in a book, to just be away from Kierra. Not that he was upset or anything with her for her prank, but rather, he didn't want to spend any more time with her than necessary. And she shouldn't be spending time with him either, he thought as he began to finely chop an onion. She was getting married. She should be spending time with her fiancé…

Just then a knock came from the door. Remus hastened to wipe his hands and answer the door. Just as expected, it was Edmund standing in the doorway, holding a large, smoking cauldron.

"Edmund, hello!" he said brightly.

"Hello Remus," replied Edmund, switching the weight of the cauldron from one hand to the other, "sorry I'm a bit early, I know"—

"No, it's alright. Here, let me take that from you"—Remus relieved Edmund of the burden and placed the cauldron on the coffee table—"thank you so much for making this for me."

Edmund smiled and waved a hand of dismissal. "It was nothing. Oh and that should be enough to tide you over until the full moon. It's in a few days, right?"

Remus nodded. "Yes, that's perfect. Er…won't you come in?"

Edmund shook his head. "Thanks but I ought to get going. I promised Kierra I'd help her address the wedding invitations."

"Oh…when is the wedding?" asked Remus. He had been quite conscious of Kierra's engagement to Edmund, but had seemed to forget entirely about the wedding—the momentous occasion where Kierra would take Edmund as her husband, and he would take her as his wife. They would be eternally bound to one another by matrimony…

"In December," Edmund replied, "over the holidays…easiest to get all the family in at that time of the year…"

Remus nodded and gave a small smile. "Ah, I see. That's not far away, is it? Just a few months…"

"Yeah"—Edmund sighed. He ran a hand through his hair—"looking forward to when it's all done. Kierra's been so snippy these past couple months, planning the wedding and all."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's the whole wedding obsession. She's quite neurotic these days. She was in a right state yesterday, when we picked up the invitations—they spelled her last name wrong…they forgot the 'K' and it was like the end of the world for her."

"Oh, that's not a big deal. I don't think many would notice." Remus assured him.

"I told her that but she still fussed. Went on about the 'K' being a part of her background. Polish pride or something…" Edmund replied with a small laugh.

"She's Polish?" Remus asked. He suddenly felt a bit stupid—he had known her since they were about eleven years old, and not once did he ever consider Kierra's last name and its possible origins. Of course, it was Polish, wasn't it? Well, not that it really mattered, of course. That was hardly significant…

"Yeah…" Edmund replied, smiling at Remus with what was unmistakably a look of smugness. "I remember when she first introduced herself to me a couple of years ago, the first thing I said to her was 'you're Polish, aren't you?' She laughed and said yes, that her grandparents were."

Remus simply nodded and forced a small smile. Well, kudos to Edmund for knowing that scrap of information about Kierra. He certainly hoped he knew a bit more about his fiancée.

"Right, well…I should go then. I'll see you later, Remus." Edmund said finally.

"Right. Good to see you, Edmund. Have fun with the wedding planning…" Remus bid him.

Edmund grinned at Remus and then disapparated at the entrance. Remus shut the door and turned his attention to the cauldron sitting on his coffee table. It was still smoking. Remus sighed as he went to the kitchen to retrieve a goblet…

* * *

"I'm home!" Kierra called as she shut the door. She received no answer. But it did smell awfully foul in their flat. She sniffed the air and made a face as she took in the odor. It was probably that wolfbane potion Edmund had been brewing. Which meant…

"Went to Remus's to drop off potion" Kierra read. She dropped the note back on the bed, and then plopped down next to it. Perhaps she should just get started on the addresses for the invitations without him. But then, Kierra suddenly remembered her dream from last night. With Edmund out of the house, now was a perfect time to look it up. Not that he _didn't_ know about her fascination with dream interpretation. He knew, alright. But it was just him. And maybe a few of her friends knew that she dabbled in it. But that was all. It wasn't something to be flaunted. Dream interpretation, after all, fell under the branch of divination. It was a silly field to most, including to her. Kierra generally didn't care for crystal balls and palm reading. But dream interpretation interested her greatly…

Kierra fell onto her stomach and leaned over the side of the bed, and reached under it. Her hand immediately fell on a hardcover book, which she grabbed and pulled to her side. She sat up now on the bed and blinked, feeling slightly dizzy from the blood rush to her head. As her head began to feel once again balanced, Kierra opened to the contents page of _The Dream Oracle_. Ok, now she just had to remember the dream…Her mind raced, trying to remember the details of the peculiar dream. Well, she was wearing her wedding gown. It was white, and quite suffocating. Kierra quickly looked up 'white', which as she had thought, symbolized purity. So she was pure? Kierra snorted. But then she remembered the dress turning off white. And then there were the off white flowers…yes, that had to be important…but there was nothing about color changes, or off-whiteness in the book…

Edmund had been with her, she remembered. But that meaning was obvious; she was going to marry him. And they had been in an empty chapel, practicing for their wedding. She looked up 'mock ceremonies'. According to the _Dream Oracle_, she was feeling nervous about the upcoming event. But she wasn't…she had no uneasiness about the upcoming wedding. Although, in the dream, she _had_ felt quite uneasy…but that was the dream, not reality. And she didn't have to look up uneasiness in a dream to know what that signified. More worries and anxiousness. But she _wasn't_ anxious…

Kierra turned to the section on seeing dead loved ones. "Seeing loved ones in dreams often reflects an emotional attachment to the deceased ones…" she read. Kierra frowned. This book wasn't telling her anything she didn't already know. She was hoping to catch something more insightful and profound in this dream. Yet she read on…

"Communicating with the dead in dreams: Generally reflects a strong connection between the living and dead individuals. Also may reflect a certain amount of distress in the individual, which most likely will exist on the subconscious level…"

So she was subconsciously distressed about something? Or she soon would be? Perhaps that did make a little sense, given what James had said to her in the dream when he left the chapel. "Don't worry, it's not so bad."

The only other thing Kierra remembered from the dream was going outside, and seeing a bright star, and a full moon. She thought briefly of Remus as she flipped to the section on celestial objects:

"Celestial objects in general represent aspirations, or can also represent people that the individual is close to. The brightness reflects strength and perseverance, while dimness reflects weakness and/or death. If various objects are seen together in dreams, the larger and brighter ones tend towards the more dominant figures in a person's life, whether people or goals.

Kierra frowned at this description. The star had been very bright, which represented strength, but then it dimmed, and eventually faded away, which would represent weakness. How could that be? Unless, Kierra thought grimly, the star represented a person in her life. Someone close to her…who persevered, but then died…or would die later. Kierra swallowed hard. Dream interpretation was a wooly business, she told herself. Maybe it referred to her father, since he had just passed away.

But then she was left with the moon, which according to the book, would be more dominant, and would play a more central role in her life. That would be Edmund, of course, wouldn't it? Yes, it made perfect sense. Her father was represented by the bright and shiny star. He had taken care of her and loved her. But the star dimmed and died out, just as her father had. And the only thing illuminating the sky in the darkness was the full moon—Edmund. They were to marry, and he would replace her father…

But that didn't make complete sense. Edmund couldn't replace her father. Certainly, he was wonderful, and she loved him dearly. But no one could replace her father. Kierra held her parents above anyone, and there was no way Edmund could outshine her father the way the moon outshined the star…

Kierra frowned, feeling a slight headache coming on. Perhaps Edmund wasn't the moon. Perhaps he wasn't the star either. Who knew? Just then, she was saved the trouble of pondering the subject further. She had heard a popping sound from down the hall, which meant that Edmund was back from Remus's. Kierra fell onto all fours to hide her book and to retrieve the wedding invitations she had also stuck under the bed.

'I really need to stop sticking things under the bed…' Kierra thought as she began to rummage for the invitations. Finally though, as she pushed aside a large box of chocolate (she wasn't quite sure how it had gotten there) she found the box that contained the invitations and envelopes. But just as she pulled it out from underneath the bed, something sparkly caught her eye. It was barely visible—thrown back far back under the bed. Kierra lay on her stomach and stretched her arm out, trying to grasp it. It was so far in, perhaps she was better off going to Edmund's side of the bed and trying there. At last though, Kierra's fingers closed around the soft, meshy fabric. When she drew back from the bed and sat up, she examined her finding. It was a purple bra, outlined by shiny purple sequins.

"Kierra, I'm home!" came Edmund's voice. "You there?"

But Kierra did not hear him. Jude's voice was ringing in her ears...

_"It 'as been missing for about a month now! I 'ave another bra in purple, of course…but zat was ze only one with sequins zat I 'ave ever 'ad! I will miss it…"_


	48. Chapter 49: Kabul Khan Kabob House

_A/N: Sorry I've been slow lately about updating. I promise the pace will pick up—mainly because I am determined to finish this fic before Half Blood Prince is released. :D _

Chapter 50: Kabul Khan Kabob House

As Remus downed the last of his wolfbane potion, he shuddered. Absolutely disgusting. It left a foul taste reminiscent of vomit in his mouth. He looked down at the smoking cauldron, and wished very much that he could chuck the remaining contents out the window. But he knew that was unwise. Reminding himself of the painful transformation he would have to undergo if he neglected his potion, he carefully placed the cauldron in a corner of the tiny kitchen. Not that transforming into a wolf _wasn't_ painful…but transforming into a werewolf was ten times the pain.

Remus leaned forward in the kitchen sink and rinsed his mouth to get the horrid taste of wolfbane potion off his tongue, but to little avail; the sickening taste lingered in his mouth. Beginning to lose his appetite for dinner, Remus went instead to his room and opened his briefcase, which was sitting on the floor. He pulled out his lesson plan, and began to look over it. _Discussing other protective charms… write theory quiz on using the fidelius charm._ He stared blankly at his notes for several moments. It was no use. His heart wasn't in it. Remus sighed and dumped his planner back in his briefcase and shut it. Perhaps a nice long walk would do him some good. He could certainly use some fresh air and exercise. Besides, he thought to himself as he grabbed his cloak and headed for the door, it was only 6:00 p.m. He had the whole evening to get his work done. He'd do it when he got back from his walk—when he was fresher, with his mind clear.

Twenty minutes later, Remus found himself walking once more down Fait Alley, the street along which he and Kierra walked after work—the street Kierra lived on. It had begun to drizzle slightly, but Remus took no notice of it. Kierra's flat was two blocks away. He could see the street lights glowing down the street, which led a path to the building she lived in. Remus decided not to walk by it. He would make a left turn after the first block, on to Hyde Haven Street—he hadn't been that way before. It wasn't nearly as well lit as Fait Alley, but that hardly mattered. He didn't care much to be seen anyway. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts, to sort them out. He thought back of Edmund, who had come to his own flat with the wolfbane potion only an hour ago. He said he was looking forward to the wedding being done with. He thought of Sirius, who seemed to hate Edmund's guts for the simple reason of his engagement to Kierra. _"He's an idiot"_ Sirius had said a few weeks ago. Remus smiled inwardly as the rain began to pour harder. He _did_ seem a bit unintelligent—no—he wasn't. Remus frowned, slightly ashamed at the thoughts that had begun to form in his mind. He had no right to judge Edmund. They had only had a few brief encounters in the past month, and he had no right to judge Edmund's character and abilities. _At least he can brew wolfbane potion,_ Remus thought to himself. _You can't even do that. He has to do it for you..._

Remus grimaced as he looked up. He had been so caught up in his thoughts that not only was he finally feeling the cold from the rain, but he had also passed Hyde Haven Street, and was still walking along Fait Alley. In fact, he was quite close to Kierra's flat now. So much for taking alternate paths.

The building in which Kierra and Edmund lived did not stretch very high--it could not have been more than six stories high. Just as Remus had begun to wonder which floor they couple lived on, a deafening screech could be heard from inside the building that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. It sounded vaguely familiar...

"THERE IS NOTHING TO DISCUSS!"

Remus looked up, wide eyed at the top story, where a window had popped open, and a large chest came hurtling down, clothes spilling out of it as it went. Remus gasped and jumped back, and the chest crashed onto the sidewalk pavement on the spot where Remus had stood only moments before. He took a few more steps backward and looked up again. Several lights in the building had gone on, and he could hear the excited murmurs of several passerby on the street. Though the street was well lit, he could barely make out the sillhouettes in the window on the top floor.

"Come on! Don't do this, Kierra...don't be difficult!" came Edmund's voice which, in comparison to Kierra's booming voice, seemed quiet and timid.

"DIFFICULT?" Kierra's voice boomed. "DIFFICULT? YOU'RE ACCUSING ME OF BEING DIFFICULT? NOTHING WAS DIFFICULT, EDMUND...EVERYTHING WAS EASY! EVERYTHING WAS FINE UNTIL ALL OF THIS!"

All of this? Remus's heart raced as he heard the couple's shouting. What had happened? He looked down at the broken chest that lay on the sidewalk and the contents that had spilled out of it. This had obviously been the work of Kierra--men's clothing was scattered all along the sidewalk. The next thing that happened made Remus jump back a second time. While he had been staring up at the commotion the door on the ground floor had swung open and Kierra, wand in hand, tore out of the building, not even noticing the pouring rain, or the fact that Remus stood only a few feet behind her. He stared at her disbelievingly. Should he call after her? Just as he decided that was the wisest thing to do and he took a step forward, he stopped in his tracks when he saw Kierra point her wand over her shoulder without looking. She had seen him? But why would she hex him?

But just then, the door swung open again, and Edmund dashed out onto the street after Kierra. It happened extremely fast. Edmund extended an arm out and called out Kierra's name, and in less than a second later, a jet of orange light shot out from Kierra's wand, and Edmund was thrown backwards, landing himself at Remus's feet, looking quite unconscious. Kierra had stunned him. Remus looked down at the still Edmund, briefly marveling at Kierra's precision in timing. But the prospect of Kierra's figure disappearing into the distance caused him to forget Edmund and hurry back down the street from which he came. He saw her turn onto Hyde Haven Street, which was still a good distance from him. Remus sighed and stopped in the sidewalk. He glanced around, making sure no one was watching, and immediately disapparated.

Remus apparated at the intersection of Hyde Haven and Fait, and immediately rushed forward. But he did not have to go far, as Kierra was sitting on a bench along the sidewalk near the intersection, her face buried in her hands. She looked up quickly at Remus's sudden appearance. She was breathing heavily, and even in the darkness, he could see her eyes glassy with tears. Remus opened his mouth to speak, but words could not come out. The same seemed to occur with Kierra as well. Her mouth fell open slightly, yet nothing came out. The rain was pouring very hard now, and Kierra, though only being outside for a few minutes, looked thoroughly soaked. She looked so miserable. Remus took a deep breath and decided to risk speaking.

"You're soaked"—

"I can't believe this is happening to me..." Kierra murmured, not bothering to ask how he had gotten there or if he had witnessed the scene in front of her flat.

Remus sighed. He wasn't sure if he should ask what happened. But then again, couples fought and argued quite openly in France. It wasn't that big a deal here. But even so, it _still _seemed awfully serious...

"Can I ask you what happened?" Remus asked gently. "You don't have to say, of course..."

Kierra shook her head. "No, it's alright..." she replied quietly, "You'd find out sooner or later..." But she did not elaborate. Remus waited for a few moments. When she did not say anything, he took a seat next to her on the bench.

"Let's get out of the rain, Kierra" he said finally. They were both thoroughly soaked from head to toe. "My flat is only a block away, if you don't want to go to yours..."

Apparently, this had been the wrong thing to say. Kierra sniffed heavily and began to sob loudly.

"I'm sorry," Remus stammered. "I'm sorry"—

"It's not my flat anymore!" Kierra bawled.

"What do you mean? He kicked you out?" asked Remus, looking at her incredulously.

Kierra shook her head, still sobbing. "I left it…I'm leaving it…I have to…"

"Why?" he asked uncertainly.

Kierra opened her mouth to reply, but instead shut her eyes and sneezed.

"Maybe you should get inside first…" Remus said, pulling her to her feet. "Come on." And with that, the two set off to Remus's flat. Kierra continued to sob quietly, occasionally putting her hand to her face to wipe her tears. Remus glanced at her briefly, frowning slightly. He put an arm around her for comfort, though it seemed to do little. She only leaned her head against his shoulder and began to cry even more.

"Come on…everything will be alright." he said quietly to her as his flat finally came into view, though he wasn't quite sure if it would, considering he didn't even know what had happened.

As they reached the flat, Remus removed his grasp from Kierra to look for his keys.

"Did you see everything?" Kierra asked so suddenly that Remus had looked up and jabbed the key at the door instead of the key hole.

"Er…no, I don't think so," he said at once, trying again with the keys. "I was taking a walk and passing through your neighborhood, and I heard some shouting…"

Kierra made no reply to this. Remus opened the door and showed her in. The wooden floor squeaked as they entered, water from their clothes dribbled sloppily onto it. Remus pulled out his wand, but then replaced it. While he knew more household spells than most males in his acquaintance, he could not think of a drying one.

"Er…I don't know any drying spells," he said truthfully. "Let me get you some clothes."

Kierra nodded and not surprisingly, said nothing. Remus hurried into his room and pulled open the top drawer of his bureau, and grabbed the top two pairs of trousers and shirts from the stack of neatly folded clothes. When he reentered his living room, he found Kierra standing in the place where he had left her. She was taking in her surroundings—not that there was much to take in. The room was small and practically bare, save for a rickety old coffee table and a shabby looking sofa. Few decorations adorned the walls—he only hung up a few replicas of paintings by various muggle artists whom he found interesting. Kierra's eyes were currently set on a painting by Salvador Dali.

"I didn't know you liked art." She said dully.

"Oh…I'm no connoisseur or anything…but I enjoy a good painting…"

Kierra nodded, and fell silent again.

"Er—clothes?" asked Remus, extending out a pair of trousers and shirt for Kierra. "You can change in my room."

"Thank you." She said, taking the clothes and retreating to Remus's room.

Remus had changed quickly out his wet clothes in the study, and hurried into the kitchen to make some tea for Kierra. Just as he pulled out two cups from the cupboard, he heard his bedroom door open. He looked over his shoulder to see Kierra slowly walk into the kitchen, but immediately turned around fully to get a better look at her. Though Kierra was almost as tall as him, his khakis seemed to be rather long on her, dragging under her heels. His dark gray shirt, which he thought must have been at least ten years old, was a faded cotton blend, and was missing several buttons from the bottom. He should have taken the time to find her a shirt that had all of its buttons...it would have taken him thirty seconds longer. It then occurred to him that since she had been soaked through, she didn't have any clean undergarments to change into, and of course he was not equipped with spare bras and panties for her. Suddenly, the idea that Kierra was going commando in _his_ clothes caused a jolt in the pit of his stomach.

"Tea!" he said abruptly. She looked up at im, looking slightly startled. "I...I made tea..." he siad quickly, returning to the stove to pour drinks for them.

"Oh." said Kierra, as Remus handed her a cup and ushered table for a seat. "Thanks..."

Kierra took a sip of tea and closed her eyes. Remus watched her intently, momentarily forgetting about his own cup. Their eyes met briefly when Kierra set her cup down. She immediately averted her eyes to another direction--there was a cauldron sitting on the kitchen counter. There had been a slightly putrid smell to Remus's flat, and she guessed now that it had come from the cualdron. _Wolfbane_, she thought grimly.

"Edmund cheated on me." She said finally, looking down at her half empty tea cup.

Remus, who had just taken a sip of tea, looked up so startled that he choked on his drink, sending some of his tea splattering out of his mouth and down the front of his shirt. He coughed fitfully for a few moments, trying to clear the passageways to his lungs. When the coughing subsided, he looked at Kierra increduously.

"He..._cheated_ on you?" He repeated.

Kierra nodded, her eyes welling up with tears again. "With..." her voice cracked.

"With...someone you know?" Remus asked.

Kierra nodded again. "Best friend...Jude..." she muttered.

"Jude? Are...are you sure? How do you know?"

Kierra swallowed hard. "Remember earlier today, Jude was talking about that lost bra?"

Remus frowned. "Yes, and the detailed description that came with it...oh my...did you...did he..." He did not finish his sentence, for he felt like he knew what was coming.

"I found it...under the bed," sniffed Kierra, "and I confronted Edmund when he got home, and he admitted to it. But he lied...he said it happened last year, just one time...but Jude said she lost that bra a month ago...he's been sleeping with her for a year now!" sobbed Kierra. "And she was my best friend too. She was my first friend when I moved here...her and Edmund. How could he do this to me? I loved him..." Kierra buried her head in her arms that were resting on the table and sobbed. "I loved him..." she muttered again.

* * *

_01 September 1995_

_Sirius,_

_I'm really sorry to have to burden you with this letter at the last minute, but it seems that I won't be able to make it to headquarters this week. Something has come up that prevents me from coming—Sorry—Kierra has just told me that it's alright to tell you. Well then...we found out tonight that Kierra's fiancé, Edmund, has been having an affair with a friend of Kierra's. She's really devastated at the moment, and is staying at my place for now. I think it would be best if I stayed here with her for a bit to help her in any way I can. Needless to say, she and I have postponed our dinner plans with Elinor and Jacques that were for tomorrow night. I've also written to Dumbledore to fill him in on that, as well as the fact that due to my absence I won't be able to stand in for guard duty and so someone will have to take my place. Once again, I'm sorry I couldn't make it this week, and I hope to see you and the others the following week. _

_Remus _

Sirius stared down at the letter in his hand for several moments before tucking it away into his robe pocket. He glanced at Tonks, who was sitting across from him in the living room of Twelve Grimmauld Place and looking at him keenly.

"What happened?" she asked. "Everything alright?"

Sirius sighed, running a hand through his long, untamed hair. "You remember that Edmund bloke?"

Tonks nodded. "He just joined the Order, didn't he? With Kierra…they're getting married, aren't they?"

Sirius sighed again. "Not anymore. Er…I don' think so, anyway. The letter doesn't say, but I'm assuming not. Remus just wrote saying Edmund's been cheating on Kierra, so he won't be able to come this week to visit."

Tonks put a hand over her mouth, staring at Sirius wide-eyed. "That's terrible!" she exclaimed. "How do they know though?"

Sirius shook his head, and closing his eyes he balled up his fists. "The letter didn't say. Man, that Edmund…I _warned _Remus…"

"Warned him about what?" asked Tonks.

"About Edmund!" Sirius replied impatiently. "I never liked him…I _told_ Remus there was something up with him…right from the start…"

Tonks frowned, staring down at the table. "I don't know…he seemed so _nice_"—

"Tonks, you think everyone is nice." Sirius snapped. "That guy was a complete buffoon. I could tell he was a good-for-nothing the moment I saw him. And to think, this could have been prevented…"

"How so?" asked Tonks, cocking an eyebrow at Sirius.

"I was telling Remus all about my suspicions that day they came. I told him I didn't like Edmund at all, and he was no good. But Remus kept saying that Edmund was alright, and a nice guy…and he and Kierra deserved each other, or something like that. If only he listened to me…he could've discouraged the engagement…"

Tonks rolled her eyes. "You're kidding me, right? You're not putting this on Remus, are you?"

Sirius shrugged. "Well, he _is_ friends with Kierra. He could've warned her about him"—

"Oh come off it, Sirius. You're just mad because Remus isn't coming to see you now." said Tonks simply.

"I am not!" Sirius said hotly. "I don't give a damn if he can't come! I'm just annoyed that he let this whole Edmund/Kierra fiasco happen!"

Tonks smiled slightly. "Right now, Kierra needs Remus more than you do. And besides, you've still got me!"

"Oh, joy." Sirius muttered sarcastically. Tonks scowled at him in return. After a moment he added, "I still think Remus could have stepped in…"

"Oh come off it, Sirius. How could anyone have known?" said Tonks irritably.

"I did! But oh, that's right!" Sirius said sarcastically. "I'm known to be rash, therefore everything I say is discounted"—

"That's not true." Tonks said immediately. "Well, the thing about you being rash is pretty true, I'd say. But your words certainly aren't disregarded."

Sirius swept his hand through his hair and got up. "Yeah, right." He knew he was acting silly for being mad at Remus for not being able to come, and what's more, unsuccessfully hiding his annoyance for such a small thing, but he did not care. His day was off to a bad start anyway, what with his fight with Dominique over what the significance of today was. Might as well let out a bit more steam…

Tonks followed after him up the stairs. "Sirius, grow up, would you?" she said crossly, grabbing a hold of the banister to keep herself from falling when she tripped over her shoe lace. "Stop acting so tragically misunderstood! People care about what you think"—

"Really?" Sirius asked quite casually as he opened the door to Buckbeak's room. "I can't remember the last time someone wanted my opinion on something."

"What about your godson?" Tonks offered shrewdly. "He always writes to you for advice. You know he doesn't go to anyone else but you…well, except maybe Ron and Hermione."

Sirius glanced briefly at Tonks but did not say anything. The truth was that statement had made him feel much better, but he did not want to admit to Tonks that it had. It reminded him that he indeed had at least one person in his life who counted on him. No one ever really felt the need to consult him on any matters, as if he were too thoughtless to give sensible advice. Even Dominique, whom he had married many years ago, rarely came to him with problems or worries, or any need for comfort…

When Sirius made no reply to her question, Tonks smiled slightly, realizing victory. Fighting the urge to rub it, Tonks opted to change the subject instead.

"So, isn't Dominique supposed to be here about now?" she asked, glancing down at her watch. "I thought she was coming today…"

"She did come." Sirius replied dully as he pulled out his wand and began to clean up the mess of bones—Buckbeak's lunch leftovers—from the floor. "She came early actually, but then she left."

"Really? To where?" asked Tonks.

Sirius shrugged. "She had to _cool down_…" he replied, screwing up his face into a whiny looking pout as he said it.

Tonks folded her arms over her chest, and looked at Sirius, quite amused. "What did you do?" she asked.

"Me?" asked Sirius incredulously. "I didn't do anything! She came here hours earlier than she was supposed to, and starts acting all coy"—

Tonks had a look of revulsion on her face. "Wait, do I want to know where this is going?"

"It doesn't go anywhere…" replied Sirius irritably. "She asked me if I knew what day it was, and I said Monday…and she got all mad and left. I don't get her sometimes. I mean, sometimes it seems like she has PMS 24/7…365"—

"Oh, Sirius!" Tonks exclaimed, putting her hands to her head and shaking it wearily. "Today must have been something special! Was it her birthday?"

Sirius shook his head. "That was a few months ago. What other special days are there?"

"Wedding anniversary?" Tonks suggested. She looked at Sirius uncertainly, and saw that he had a look on his face that clearly read, _damn_. She rolled her eyes. "Oh Sirius, how could you forget something like that?"

"Well, you tend to forget symbolic dates when you've spent twelve years in Azkaban. I mean, what with all the preoccupation of dementors looming about everywhere…" Sirius replied. "And it was a long time ago, too!" he added.

Tonks sighed with an air of patience. "Right. Well, she probably didn't think of that. It's alright though. She'll come back soon enough. You can make up then."

Sirius sighed and leaned against the wall, watching as Buckbeak settled himself onto the floor to take a nap. "I should do something nice for her. She is quite good to me, you know. Coming here all the way from Paris every other weekend to see me…" Well, he was sure that she was also coming to Britain for Dumbledore and the Order, but it was more comforting to imagine her coming all way from France just for him…

Tonks leaned back next to him. "Well, there are the usuals…chocolates, flowers, jewelry…promises you don't intend to keep…"

Sirius moved away from the wall and began to pace around the room. "No, no…I've given her those things before. It has to be something more special than that…something really grand." _Grand_. Sirius grinned. "Tonks, would you be willing to run a few errands for me?"

* * *

Dominique quietly shut the door behind her as she entered number twelve Grimmauld Place, careful not to disturb any of the portraits. She picked up her shopping bags from the ground and tiptoed down the hall towards the kitchen, where she could hear the voices of Sirius and Tonks talking excitedly.

"Dominique!" Tonks said cheerfully as she spotted Dominique standing at the entrance of the kitchen.

"Hey Tonks!" Dominique replied, placing her bags on the table in order to give Tonks a hug. "Good to see you"—

"Good to see you too," Tonks said quickly, parting from Dominique. "Listen, I've got to run actually"—she glanced over at Sirius excitedly, who in turn gave her a warning look—"I've uh…got to go to my mum's….to er… trim the tail twigs on her broom…yeah! Well, see you!" And without further adieu, Tonks hurried out of the kitchen and could be heard down the hall, where she tripped over something, sending the portraits into their routinely screams.

"I'm sorry!" Tonks could be heard shouting. "Stupefy!" in attempts to stun the portraits.

"One sec…" Sirius said to Dominique as he hurried off to join Tonks. A few moments later, Sirius returned, tucking his wand away in his robe pocket.

"Sirius," Dominique started at once, "I'm really sorry I blew up at you today. I should've been more sensitive. How could I have expected you to remember…all those years in Azkaban, I'm sure you had more pressing matters to be dealing with. Anyway, it was just our wedding anniversary today…you have a right to forget about something as trivial as that."

She headed to the kitchen table where she had left her bags and began to unpack them. She pulled out several Styrofoam containers from the bag, which seemed to fill the room with a delicious aroma.

"I know how you love ethnic food, and I've been telling you about that great new Afghan restaurant that's a few blocks away…"

"Kabul Khan Kabob House?" Sirius asked at once. Dominique, as well as several other Order members, had been raving about this new restaurant, much to Sirius's dismay. He loved South Asian food, and hearing them talk about a place that served it, which he couldn't go to (thanks to Dumbledore) only annoyed him.

"Their food is excellent, and I thought well, if I couldn't take you to the restaurant, I should bring the restaurant to you!" Dominique said, bustling around to put the food on platters.

"You weren't kidding when you said this food was excellent." Sirius said as he popped another fried pastry into his mouth. "Then again, it might be because I haven't eaten restaurant food since I was twenty two. And these samosas are good...bet Molly couldn't even make ground beef like this..."

Dominique grinned slightly as she helped herself to another skewer of chicken kabob. "Er, Sirius, it's ground lamb, not beef."

Sirius raised an eyebrow and stopped chewing momentarily. "Oh..." he said simply, and continued to eat. When they had eaten all that they could, Dominique and Sirius packed away the rest of the food for later.

"Well, that was the best meal I've had in ages." Sirius declared as he wiped the table clean. He paused though in his cleaning and smiled slightly. "I should really say that tomorrow in front of Molly."

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Sirius, you two need to give it a rest. You always have something bad to say about each other, it's terrible"--

"That was an excellent meal," Sirius said, ignoring Dominique's comment and taking her hands in his own, "thank you. I know these sort of things mean a lot to you, so you were wrong, that I have a right to forget about our anniversary. I should have remembered. Our wedding was one of the happiest days of my life."

"Really?" Dominique asked, her voice squeaking slightly as she gazed into Sirius's eyes.

Sirius laughed. "Of course. Does that surprise you or something?"

Dominique blushed. "Well...there was that whole deal with me running away on the wedding day..."

"Well, notwithstanding that part then." Sirius said with a grin. "Listen, I have something for you too. Come on..."

And he led her out of the kitchen and into the living room, where Dominique stopped short when she saw the shiny, black grand piano resting in a corner of the room.

Dominique's jaw fell slightly as she took in its brand new appearance. "How…how...how did you...how?"

"Well, Tonks stopped by shortly after you left, and she sort of made the blocks fall into place for me. When I realized what an idiot I was, I had Tonks go and withdraw some money from my Gringotts account, and told her to get you a grand piano in black. She shrunk it down, made it feather-light, and brought it over here. I know you've always admired them. I mean, I know you already have one of those upright ones at your house in France…but you said it was rusty…so…you can take it back with you...or if you want, you could always keep it here…I mean, whatever you want…if you get bored here, you know…"

"I want to keep it here." Dominique said at once. She ran her long, delicate fingers over the shiny new keys, aching to make sweet love to them. They were so beautiful, part of her was afraid to even coax sound out of them.

"Yeah?" Sirius asked, looking quite amused at the look of yearning on her face.

"Yeah—I can teach you how to play." She said, finally looking away from the piano to smile at Sirius.

"Spiffy! I want to learn the one by that crazy old guy…"

"Most musicians are crazy old men, Sirius…"

"The muggle one…"

"Oh, that narrows it down…"

"You know, the one you always gush about? The one who was deaf…"

"Oh—Beethoven!" Dominique laughed. "Sure, we'll get to him…let's teach you the basics first though. Oh! I actually have some music in my bag--let me go get it!"

And with that, Dominique hurried back to the kitchen to retrieve her music. As Sirius waited, he glanced at the grand piano and smiled inwardly. _She loved it_. He had gotten her the perfect gift...

"Oh, I can't wait to show this to Remus!" Dominique called from the kitchen. "I bet he'll want to have a go at it when he sees it..."

Sirius looked up abruptly as Dominique reentered the living room, music in hand. "Yeah..." he said with a smile. Today was their anniversary, and right now Dominique was extremely happy. He didn't want to spoil things for her by saying that Remus wouldn't be coming this week because Kierra's fiancé was cheating on her. He would tell her tomorrow morning, perhaps...

As the two sat together at the piano, Dominique turned abruptly to Sirius. "Oh, I almost forgot..." She leaned forward slightly and kissed him on the lips. "Thanks," she said with a smile, "thank you so much."

* * *

Instead of spending the rest of the evening doing his lesson plans as he had intended to do, Remus found himself bustling between the kitchen, where he was working on dinner for himself and Kierra, and the living room, where Kierra sat miserably with a box of tissues in one hand and a half-eaten bar chocolate in the other.

"...and I don't know what I'm going to do now..." Kierra sniffed. "I have to move out. But where am I going to go? I can't get a flat just like that..."

"You can stay here as long as you need to." Remus replied as he joined her in the living room and sat down next to her. "I mean, if you're comfortable with that."

"But it could take a few weeks for me to find a flat that's open"--

"When I said you could stay here as long as you needed, I meant you could stay here as long as you needed." Remus said with a smile.

"I don't want to be a burden"--

"You won't be."

"Are you sure? Because I could stay at a hotel..."

"I'm positive."

There were a few moments of silence. Remus watched Kierra, who in turn was staring off into space, apparently in deep thought. "It'd be so much easier if Elinor weren't married..." she said finally.

"Sorry?"

"She used to be my flatmate..." Kierra explained. "But then she went and got married and had kids...it would be nice to live with her again...and I'd just hate to live alone..."

"Living alone isn't too bad..." Remus said. "Well, I suppose it does get boring sometimes, but usually it's pretty nice. I like my solitude."

"See, I don't know if I could do that..." Kierra said grimly. "I've never actually lived alone...I've always had a flatmate. Well, except when I first moved to the States, I lived alone for about two months, and I hated it...I felt to lonely..."

"We all have different temperaments." Remus said, leaning over a bit to get a glimpse of the stove in the kitchen to make sure nothing was spewing out of cauldrons. "Perhaps you should get a flatmate then. Have you got any other friends that you could room with?"

Kierra sighed and bit off a large chunk of chocolate from her bar. "Elinor's married, Jude's obviously out of the question..." she said bitterly. "Katie's married, Denise lives with her boyfriend, Mary, Natalia, and Barb already have flatmates...there's Emile, but he smokes like a chimney...Pierre has an extra room and would probably let me live with him...but I don't think his girlfriend would like that..."

Remus looked at her with a slight frown as she continued to tally off her friends, wondering if she had considered him. He _did _have an extra room...

Kierra groaned. "All my bloody friends are married and have families! Great, so not only am I out of a place to live, but I'm single, and childless, and thirty four years old!"

Remus couldn't help but smile slightly as Kierra buried her face in her hands. He pat her gently on the back. "Hey, you're not the only one, if it helps." he offered. She looked up at him and smiled humorlessly.

Remus shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the words left his mouth. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get into a discussion of his spinsterhood...Perhaps he should steer them back onto the topic of Kierra's living dilemna...

"Look, why don't you just live here?" Remus said abruptly, before he could give himself a chance to chicken out. "I mean...if you're comfortable with that..." he added quickly.

She looked at him thoughtfully, and Remus began to wonder if it was a mistake to offer his place. Did his offer make her feel uncomfortable? It was certainly making _him_ feel a bit uneasy, but that as probably because he was worried about how she felt...

"I mean...I know it doesn't exactly scream _grandeur_, but I've got an extra room that I've been using as a study, and I can easily move all of that out..." he added hastily, wondering what ever possessed him to ask his ex girlfriend to live with him. _Who does that? _he wondered. _You don't ask your ex girlfriend to live with you...even if you dated sixteen years ago...you idiot..._

"Oh...well...of course I'm comfortable with living with you..." Kierra said, smiling weakly. "But are you sure? I don't want to burden you"--

"No, it's no burden at all..."

"But you said you like to live alone...and you like solitude..." Kierra reminded him.

"But it does get boring sometimes...I doubt you're going to be popping in my face every few seconds."

Kierra smiled genuinely for the first time that night. "So you're sure you don't mind?"

"Of course not." replied Remus. "You can move in whenever you're ready."

Kierra, who had been smiling moments before now frowned. "Oh no..." she groaned.

"What's the matter?"

"How am I going to get all of my things from Edmund's place? Oh great...I don't want to see him..." Kierra muttered, burying her face in her hands again. "Maybe I'll move my things out when he's gone to work..."

Kierra sniffed heavily, and Remus knew that she was crying again. He watched her, thoroughly disheartened to see her so miserable. She didn't deserve this kind of heartache. Though rarely did he ever dislike people so much that he wished them ill, Remus sincerely hoped that Edmund was suffering. He hoped that Edmund was sitting all alone in his flat, staring at Kierra's posessions, and miserable over the fact that he had lost something so precious because of his own doings. He hoped that Edmund would have to live with that guilt for the rest of his life; that would be his pain. He hoped Edmund would have a long life.

"Why did he do this to me?" Kierra murmured as she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her borrowed shirt, as she had used up all the tissues. "I thought he loved me..."

Remus sighed and rubbed her back to comfort her as she continued to cry.

"I feel so stupid..." she muttered. "Here I am, crying my eyes out in front of you...and now you've taken pity on me and you're letting me live with you...this is so embarassing..."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Hey," he said, lifting her chin so they could see eye to eye, "don't talk like that. You shouldn't be embarrassed. You didn't do anything wrong"--

"I know, but I was stupid! That's why I'm embarrassed...because feel so stupid! He led me on for a year, making me feel like I was all special...and Jude! I hate her...I hate her ten times more than I hate him. I know I probably shouldn't, but I do...I hate her...she took him away from me...he was mine and she took him!" Kierra sobbed. "But who am I kidding? Maybe he was never even mine. I thought sometimes when we were going out that it was all too good to be true...he was just so...amazing...and he picked someone like me..."

When she thought she could say no more, she looked up at Remus, half expecting him to look sympathetic, patting her on the back saying it would alright. But he was looking at her quite disbelievingly, as if she had said something blasphemous. "Wh-hat?" she asked as she hiccuped.

Remus sighed and looked her squarely in the eyes. "You're putting Edmund on a pedestal and he doesn't deserve that. He's not even deserving of your admiration, Kierra..."

"I know, but"--

"There's a saying," Remus cut in, "that impure men deserve impure women"—

"Do you think Jude's bad too then?" she asked, looking slightly hopeful.

"She betrayed you as much as Edmund did...Again, impure men deserve impure women." And more gently he added, "and pure women deserve pure men. You would never cheat on your partner, Kierra. You respect the ones you love too much to hurt them. Edmund doesn't deserve someone as good as you. And you deserve someone so much better than him. Someone who has as much experience as you in love and life. Someone who's as strong as you."

He reached out and touched her tear-stained face, which bore a tiny hint of a smile. He wiped her tears with his hand and smiled at her. "Don't worry, it's not so bad...you'll see."


	49. Chapter 50: Remus and Pierre

Chapter 51: Remus and Pierre, Sittin' in a Tree; K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Remus walked briskly down the first floor hallway of Aveyron Academy at 7:58 a.m. He held tightly to his briefcase with his right hand, and suppressed a yawn with his left. He had been awake late into the night, trying to comfort Kierra, leaving him few hours to rest. And now he had gotten up, about two hours before his normal wake-up time, in order to do a quick run down of Kierra's lesson plans, as he was going to substitute her classes for the day, which was where he was heading to at the moment—Kierra's magical architecture class. He entered the class at 8 a.m. on the dot, only to find her class staring expectantly at him. The wizarding community in France was small, and even smaller in Aveyron. He wondered if anyone knew, or had suspicions...

"Good morning all..." He said, beaming at the class. Most of them looked familiar, as they were also enrolled in his advanced defense against the dark arts class. There were a few "good morning professor Lupin"s heard from the class--most of them were still staring at him expectantly.

"Well," he said, knowing that he owed them an explanation of his appearance in their class, "Professor Nakofsky isn't feeling well this morning, so she's asked me to oversee your lessons for today." He rested his briefcase on the desk and popped it open, and began to look for the instructions Kierra had given him. "Right. So architecture isn't exactly my expertise, so Kierra's—er—Professor Nakofsky's arranged for you to work independently this morning. If you all will turn to chapter two in your books and begin to read. She wants you to write up an abstract on your reading—providing six inches of summary, and another six inches on your opinion of the topics discussed in the readings. As I've said—er—yes, Rose?" Remus had been so busy fussing with the lesson plans in his briefcase, he had not noticed that a hand had gone up.

"Please, professor…vere is Professor Nakofsky?"

Remus smiled pleasantly at her. "She's out sick Rose, as I said earlier"—

"Are you sure?" piped up another student, whose name Remus was sure was Jean-Benoît. "Because Julie Nadeau lives near Professor Nakofsky, and she said she heard some shouting last"—

""Zat is what I head too!" chimed in Edouard Balladar from the back. "From Alain"—

"Right, that's enough." Remus said firmly, snapping his briefcase shut with a hard thud that matched the tone of his voice. "I can honestly tell you that your professor isn't well, and finds her self incapable of attending class today, so that should be enough for you. Now, if you all would please turn to your books and begin to read…I'll be collecting your abstracts at the end of the hour."

Remus sat himself at Kierra's desk and glanced up briefly at the class, only to receive, though to no surprise, several glares from the students. Remus shrugged this off as he turned to his own work. They would get over not knowing Kierra's whereabouts soon enough. Like it was really their business anyway… Though, he could understand their concern. She certainly appeared to be a favorite amongst students, having received the Aveyron Academy award two years in a row—an honor bestowed upon the professor, chosen by the graduating class, who displayed excellence in teaching. But he didn't need to see the plaques in the staffroom to see her popularity. Yesterday had only been the first day of class, and Remus had only seen Kierra in passing a few times during the day, but on each occasion she had been surrounded by a pack of students who were talking to her eagerly. During her lunch break, Remus had stopped by her office to say hello, and found her with three other students, chatting about the architects who designed enchanted castles...

Remus looked up to see another hand go up. He took a deep breath, hoping it wasn't anything about Kierra.

"Professor," said the blond student whom he did not recognize, "zer is a part in ze chapter zat talks about 'ogwarts and 'ow it achieves commodity, firmness and delight. It uses ze example of ze staircases"—

"I'm sorry," Lupin said, shaking his head, "commodity, firmness and delight? I know what those words mean, but in the context of architecture…can you briefly fill me in?"

"Well," the blond girl said, glancing down at her book for reference, "zey are ze three architectural principles…architectural principles people base their work on…commodity refers to ze functionality of a building, firmness refers to ze structural strength, and delight refers to ze aesthetic value…meaning, how pleasing it is to ze eyes…"

Remus nodded in understanding. "Alright. So you want to know how the staircases at Hogwarts achieve these three goals?"

The blond nodded.

"Well, they obviously achieved firmness, as they were built thousands of years ago and still stand today. It's definitely a delight, because they are made beautiful, not to mention that it was always funny to see students befuddled by the sudden shift in direction of the stairs. And well…as for commodity, it serves its purpose, doesn't it? They get people from point A to B."

"But how is it functional if it keeps shifting…preventing a person to get from point A to B? What's the point of it?"

Remus paused to consider the matter, determined to think of a good answer to satisfy the student. It was a matter of pride in his school, after all, and he wouldn't have these students under the misapprehension that Hogwarts was build with shoddy craftsmanship.

"Well," he said slowly, "I suppose the architects who designed Hogwarts did so because they wanted to keep students from loitering on the stairs. Staircase congestion is the most annoying, as you all would know. So if they made the staircases change randomly, it would encourage students to hurry along their way…"

"Cool…" the blond girl said appreciatively. "Thank you, sir."

"Professor," Jean-Benoît piped up again, "Did you attend Hogwarts?"

Remus smiled slightly, as he saw Jean-Benoît smirk at Julie Nadeau. He had enough teaching experience and knew an attempt to throw the class off on a tangent when he saw one. Nevertheless, Remus nodded and said "Yes, I did go there."

"Professor Nakofsky said she went there too!" said Julie. "Did you know her then?"

Remus shifted slightly in his seat. He wondered what else Kierra had said about her time in Hogwarts. "Yes, we were in the same year. Same house too, actually."

"Were you two friends?" asked the blond girl who had brought up the subject of Hogwarts in the first place.

"Sort of…Alright, you lot. Get back to work, please. You don't have much time left.' He said, pointing at the clock that hung overhead.

Julie pouted. "I vant to 'ear more about 'ogwarts, professor…There's an entire section dedicated to it in this chapter…it vould be so nice to hear about it from someone who 'as actually been there!"

The rest of the class nodded their heads vigorously in agreement. Remus smiled. "I'm sure Kierra will be more than happy to share her anecdotes of her days at Hogwarts when she's back. And no doubt her stories will be much more interesting and colorful than mine…"

"Oh come on, professor"—said Jean-Benoît.—"sir!"—he added quickly when Lupin looked at him warily. "Please? How can you deny us"—

Remus sighed. "Alright, but during the last few minutes of class, and on the condition that you've all turned in your abstracts."

The class groaned in response, and set off to continue their work. Twenty minutes later, the last abstract had been turned in, and the class was looking at Remus as expectantly as they had when he had first entered the class. Remus looked at the clock and sighed. He had about ten minutes until the end of class. "Alright…what would you all like to know about Hogwarts?"

Jean-Benoît's hand shot up. "So…it says in our book that the stairs that lead to the girls' dormitory turn into slides if boys try to climb them. How come?"

"Well, the founders of the school thought that boys were less trustworthy…so it was just a precautionary act for the safety of the female students."

"So you already knew about that?" asked Jean-Benoît, his face falling into a smirk. "How did you find out? The hard way?"

The class fell into laughter, and Remus too, laughed. "No, I'm afraid my story is not as interesting as you'd hope, Mr. Gustave. I read about it in Hogwarts, a History when I was a boy."

"So boys can't go in girls' rooms, but girls can come up to the boys' rooms?" asked a redhead named Miranda Lefou.

"Correct…and don't bother asking the question you want to ask, Jean-Benoît." Remus said, waving a hand dismissively at the boy who had raised his hand again. Several students sniggered, and Jean-Benoît blushed, but grinned in spite of himself.

"Is there really a willow tree that attacks people who get too close to it?" Miranda asked. Remus nodded in response. "Zis 'ogwarts is ze craziest school I 'ave ever heard of!" Miranda said. "All of zese weird and dangerous features…"

"Oh, you don't know the half of it." Remus said, smiling wryly.

"You 'ave more dangerous things in ze castle?" Miranda asked, looking astonished.

"Oh yes, there's the forbidden forest that's got creatures of every sort in it…the lake with its merpeople, giant squid, and grindylows…"

"A giant squid?" Julie asked, looking slightly disconcerted. "I hate squids…"

"What else is there?" Jean-Benoît inquired. "What did you like most about 'ogwarts?"

Remus paused to think. "Well..I don't know. The library was always nice when Madam Pince the librarian wasn't breathing down your neck for touching her books…I always liked the quidditch pitch…"

"You play quidditch, professor?" asked Daniel Chatelet, whom Remus had heard to be the best seeker the school had seen in many years.

"Ah, no…I haven't played a match of quidditch in my life, funny enough. Yet I really loved the quidditc pitch…it was outdoors…nice expanse of land to take walks on…of course, I saw some good matches too…" he added quickly when he received some funny looks from the students.

"Take walks?" asked Jean-Benoît, cocking an eyebrow at Lupin. "By yourself…or did you take girlfriends there?"

"Oh…I didn't have girlfriends…I mean…I did…but not many…" Remus replied, feeling himself blushing. "This is getting a bit personal, don't you all think?" he asked with a slight smile.

"Not at all." Julie said with a grin. "We love hearing about professors' days at school"—

"Especially their love lives." Jean-Benoît finished. "So how many girlfriends did you have at ze school, professor?"

"Alright, you lot…when I said we could talk about Hogwarts, I meant we'd talk about its architecture, not…my life in it…" Remus said firmly.

"Are zere a lot of secret passageways in 'ogwarts?" asked Miranda. "I 'eard zat there were…"

"Yes, there are…" Remus answered in a slightly calmer voice, glad to be back on topic. "I was fortunate enough to discover probably all of them during my years there with my friends."

"Do you think Professor Nakofsky knows 'ogwarts as well as you do?" Jean-Benoît asked. "With all ze secret places?"

Remus smiled. "Well, no doubts she knows much more than me about its architecture…but in all honesty, I think she spent far less time prowling around the castle at night with her friends like I did. Though no doubt, I'm sure her knowledge of the grounds is extensive…she'll know a couple of hidden places like the kitchens and the secret passageway that led to the village…I took her there once"—Remus stopped mid-sentence as he realized what he had said—"er—she…had just wanted to see them, from what I remember…" he finished lamely, now hoping that this class was too thick to put two and two together to figure out that he and Kierra had dated. But he knew they weren't. On the contrary, they were a very sharp bunch, particularly Mr. Jean-Benoît Gustave. To his great relief though, the bell had rung, and the class was dismissed.

Kierra bustled around Remus's kitchen (or was it her kitchen now too? She wasn't quite sure…) putting cleaned dishes away. She paused for a moment to check the cooking on the stove. Perfect, she thought, smiling for the first time that day. She was cooking (muggle style of course. She was just no good with magical techniques…) dinner for her and Remus, and she hadn't burned anything yet. She was quite proud of herself. She pulled her wand out from behind her ear and tapped the dirty counter. "Scourgify" she muttered. To her dismay, a few shards of onion peels disappeared from the counter, but the rest of the mess stayed. Oh, she was hopeless… She quickly wet a rag and began to wipe the counter, pausing once to catch her reflection in the microwave, which she was very surprised to see in Remus Lupin's flat. She ran a hand through her dark brown hair, which she had dyed this afternoon on a whim. She had to admit, it didn't look nearly as good as the red she had kept for so long, but she just felt like a change. Perhaps it was because she was moping around the flat all morning, sulking over Edmund. Or maybe it was because Edmund had been the one who told her to keep her hair red when she first dyed it. Wanker…she thought angrily.

Edmund doesn't deserve someone as good as you, she reminded herself as she scrubbed the counter clean. Actually she had been repeating Remus's words from last night over and over in her head throughout the day. They would provide her comfort for a few hours, but then she would remember Jude's bra, and images of Jude in her bed with Edmund would run through her mind. She wondered how long it would all last. But no matter how long it did take for her to get over Edmund, she wouldn't let Remus pity her. They had only been reacquainted with each other for a few months now, and already she had cried twice on his shoulder. He probably thought her some incompetent, emotional human hosepipe. Even when they were dating, she had on many occasions worn her heart on her sleeve and cried openly in front of him. And as Kierra set plates and glasses on the table, she realized that not once in her whole life had she seen Remus cry. The image of Remus crying made Kierra shudder slightly. Crying seemed to be beneath Remus, who kept his emotions held back like a dam. He'd have plenty of reason to cry, of course…having plenty of losses. As she heard Remus apparate into the flat, she wondered how awkward Dominique and Sirius would feel if she asked them if Remus had ever cried…

"Kierra!" Remus smiled warmly at her as he appeared with a popping sound into the living room. She peered out of the kitchen and grinned at him.

"Hi Remus!"

He gaped at her. "Kierra—your hair's brown! And"—he took a whiff of the air—"and it smells like food cooking"—he glanced around the flat. He was always tidy, but with Kierra coming over last night and with their somber sleepover party, he hadn't any time to clean up—"but our place is all clean! What happened?"

Kierra bounced into the living room excitedly. "Did you say our place?"

"Er…you wanted to move in, right?"

"Yeah…I just…I don't know. I guess I didn't expect you to adjust like that…I even feel weird calling this our place." She admitted, smiling sheepishly.

"Are you sure about that?" Remus asked, looking Kierra up and down. She was sporting more of his clothes. "Because you seem to be comfortable with the idea of collective property…"

"Oh!" Kierra blushed, tugging at the shirt she had borrowed from Remus's room. "Sorry about that…I just really needed a shower, and I had no clothes to change into…and I really needed something to go out in, because I wanted to dye my hair…"

"Ah yes…I can see that. So, got sick of the red then?"

"Yeah…just wanted some change. So…I dyed my hair, and I just felt renewed…so I cleaned up the place, and made dinner!"

"So you cook now?" asked Remus, looking at her amusedly.

"Yeah…I've been able to cook for a while now, thank you very much." Kierra said airily. "But I do it muggle style, culinary magic is overrated anyway…"

Remus grinned. "If you say so…"

"So, how was today? Did you manage teaching for two?" Kierra asked as she brought out the food to the table.

"It was alright." Remus replied. "That architecture class of yours is pretty interesting, I have to admit…"

Kierra smiled. "It's my favorite class. And thanks so much for subbing. I promise to come to work tomorrow."

"Don't feel pressured or anything…" Remus said. "If you need more time off…"

"No, no…I'm perfectly fine," Kierra said quickly. "I don't want people to start talking…I mean, that's if they haven't already…" she said slowly, looking at Remus worriedly. "I mean, they haven't been talking, have they?"

Remus sighed.

"Oh God…people are talking? What did you hear? Did anyone ask you anything?"

"Some of your students tried to pry some information out of me…I think some of them heard shouting at your flat last night…and they saw that chest of clothes out on the sidewalk…"

"Oh no…" Kierra groaned. She sunk into her chair and buried her face in her hands.

"No, no…it's not as bad as you think… I mean, I've heard bits of stuff today in the halls, and no one seems very close to guessing what happened."

"Why? What did you hear?"

Remus smiled humorlessly. "They were saying things like, 'Oh, I heard shouting'…'she's living with Lupin…I saw them walking together towards his flat!' 'But Lupin's a poof!' 'They're shagging each other!' 'But Lupin's a poof!' 'Kierra must've left Edmund because she loves Lupin…but he won't have her because he's a poof!'"

Kierra looked at him, open mouthed.

"From what I've heard…apparently I'm a desperate poof who was trying to get with our colleague, Pierre, but couldn't because he's obviously straight, so then I tried to get your fiancé, but also couldn't, so I settled with shagging you instead, thus ending your engagement to Edmund…" Remus said, frowning slightly.

Kierra gaped at him for a moment, but then frowned. "Er—how exactly did Pierre get into this?"

Remus shrugged. "I think it's because I said to a student yesterday that Pierre seemed like a very nice man. That's what I heard someone say in the halls."

Kierra shook her head, smiling slightly. "Are you sure that's what the students think? Because that sounds like the funniest load of shit I've ever heard…"

Remus laughed. "It is, I know. But I'm sorry to say that's what the students are saying. Actually, I'm not sorry at all. I suppose it's better that they're making these wild theories that they probably don't believe anyway than to have them know what actually happened."

Kierra nodded in agreement. They began to eat dinner in silence. After a few moments, Kierra couldn't take it. She had to know… "Did you see Jude today?"

Remus dropped his spoon in his soup and had to fish it out. "Well…yes…I saw her from a distance, in the halls."

And how did she look? Do you think she knows?"

Remus looked down at his soup. He did not want to tell her what he saw…that Jude looked completely normal, as if nothing had happened…that he had seen her conversing pleasantly with Elinor, who would also know by now about last night's events, as he had sent her an owl to cancel their dinner plans to discuss the order of the phoenix. And most of all, he did not want to tell her that at the end of the day, he had seen Edmund meet Jude at the entrance of the castle and walk off together. She didn't need to know all of that. It would hurt her too much…

"She looked sulky.' Remus said finally.

"Sulky?"

"Yes…she probably knows that you found out, and well, she probably feels like shit now…serves her right…" he added.

Kierra nodded and did not inquire furher, much to Remus's relief, and they lapsed into silence again. A few moments later though, it was broken, but this time by Remus.

"Er…why do all the students think I'm a poof?" he asked, causing Kierra to snigger. Much as he was offended by being mistaken for one, he was glad that it had at least made Kierra laugh.

"Well…" she said slowly. "I'm not sure…I guess…er…let's put it this way. You're too good to be a guy."

"Er…what's that supposed to mean?"

Kierra shrugged. "The typical guy is such a dunderhead…with stupid masculine tendencies. Like being horrible dressers, insensitive, bad communicators, messy, just all those negative qualities you tend to find in men, you don't have them….that must be it."

"Really?" Remus asked, feeling himself flush slightly. "Er…thanks, I think…"

"Ok" said Kierra softly, pulling her ear away from the door and turning to look at Remus. "I'm positive he isn't home. Come on…" And from her pocket she withdrew a key to unlock the door to Edmund's flat. Remus took a deep breath and followed her inside.

"I'm not sure if this is such a good idea…you do know this is called breaking in and entering, don't you?" Remus asked quietly.

"Yeah, so? I'm just taking what's mine…" Kierra said, tiptoeing into Edmund's flat, which was completely dark.

"So? Do you know it's punishable by law?" Remus continued, though he followed her in to the dark flat anyway.

"Lumos." Kierra muttered. She turned to Remus. "Oh sorry"—she lowered her wand, as to not blind him with the lights—"let's hurry this up…he'll probably be back in a few hours."

Remus nodded and hauled out a trunk with seven key holes on it and set it flat on the floor. He pulled out a set of keys and stuck one of them in the last keyhole and opened the trunk.

"Very nice of Moody to lend it to us." he muttered, peering inside the trunk, which revealed a very large pit, almost like an underground room, which was now empty. "Alright, let's start with all the big things. Should I go ahead inside? You can pass me your stuff…" Remus said, turning to Kierra.

"Yeah, sure…" and with that, Remus climbed inside the trunk. He felt himself fall onto a hard, cold floor. He looked around the large room that was contained in one of the compartments of the trunk. It was very spacious, and would probably fit most of Kierra's things. Maybe they wouldn't need to use the other compartments of the trunk, which were much smaller and normal sized. He could hear Kierra grunting, and the sound of furniture being pushed across the floor. Hopefully she was taking something that was in fact hers. He really did not want the two of them to get convicted for theft… Committing a crime would certainly not help them in their campaign for the order to raise Voldemort awareness in the French community…

Of course, Moody had begged to differ. Surprisingly, when Remus had asked Moody if they could borrow his trunk so Kierra could break into her ex-fiance's flat, and move out, Moody immediately consented and fell into a rant about what a tosser Edmund was…how Sirius had told him what happened, and how Sirius was absolutely right about his suspicions of Edmund…Remus then spent the next twenty minutes listening to Moody, as he unloaded his trunk, about how he remembered Kierra as a girl, and how she deserved much better, and how she had a right to break in and do whatever she wanted to the prat's flat…

"A good fingerprint-erasing charm will do the trick." Moody had said gruffly, causing Remus to wonder whether Mundungus Fletcher was spending too much time with the Order and rubbing off on Moody. When Remus reminded him that he, Moody, had once worked in law enforcement, Moody went off on him for not caring enough about Kierra's welfare.

"Wha—she broke up with ME!" Remus had exclaimed when Moody muttered that Kierra was better off with someone like him, and then proceeded to ask why he had dumped her in the first place. Of course, Remus had never told Kierra about his long discussion with Moody that had predominately been about her. Moody and Kierra had always seemed to have unspoken bond with each other. Moody seemed to have a strange attachment to Kierra, and Kierra seemed to have a strange respect for him. Actually, Remus remembered this bond forming around the time that Kierra had been cut from auror training…Moody had been her mentor. Even though they were dating at the time and Kierra had come crying to Remus's house when it happened, she had never told him about her conversation between Moody. It must have been that conversation that brought forth some sort of mutual amenity between them…

"Oy—Remus! Incoming!"

Remus looked up to see Kierra trying to shove a large bookshelf through the entrance of the room/trunk. Remus smiled slightly and moved forward to grab a hold of the shelf and slowly ease it into the room inside the trunk.

About an hour later, all seven compartments of Moody's trunk had been filled and they were on their way back to their flat. ("I'll be much more comfortable calling it our flat when I've paid for my share of the rent" Kierra muttered). As they trudged along Fait Alley in the darkness wit the trunk between them, Kierra turned to Remus. "So…are you going to keep getting your potion from Edmund then?" she asked.

"No" Remus said briskly. He had actually given this matter a lot of thought since the breakup. Edmund had made just enough potion to tide him over for the full moon, which was tomorrow…

"But"—

"Do you think Edmund would make it if he found out you moved in with me?"

Kierra's face fell. "I'm sorry"—

"No, don't worry about it." Remus said lightly. "I've got it all figured out. I've gotten in touch with Snape, and asked him if he could have potion ready for me when I'm in London"—

"He agreed?" Kierra asked, astonished.

"Yes…mind you, Dumbledore's name was thrown around a bit in the conversation, but I got him to agree…so I've got a set schedule as to when I'm going to be in London, and I have to stick to it."

Kierra nodded. "And what about when you're here?"

"Mundungus Fletcher."

Kierra frowned. "That little bloke in the order?"

Remus nodded. "He has…some contacts, shall we say…in the black market, and he told me he might be able to hook me up with someone in Paris."

Kierra laughed. "Black Market wolfbane potion? Do you trust it?"

"For the hefty sum I'm going to be paying, I have to trust it…"

Kierra frowned again. "Why couldn't you just go through the hospital?"

"Because they'd know I'm a werewolf, and then I'd have to be put on the werewolf registry here…which is completely open to the public." He said in a slightly bitter tone.

"Which would destroy the whole purpose of you being here…" Kierra finished glumly. They walked the remainder of the way in silence.

Remus shuddered as he drank the last of the wolfbane potion that Edmund had made for him. He looked down at the empty cauldron, wondering if Edmund would come for it, or if he should go himself to drop it off. He looked at the clock and saw that it was 5:30 p.m., which meant Kierra would be back from work any minute.

As Remus put the cauldron in the sink and tapped it with his wand to rinse itself out, he wondered how her day had gone. He had only spent his lunch break with her, along with Elinor and Pierre, the latter whom had looked at Remus nervously and sat as far away from him as possible until Kierra bluntly told him that Remus was straight and didn't have any ulterior implications when he said that Pierre was a very nice man. (Pierre became considerably nicer to Remus after that.) Kierra filled Pierre and Elinor in on the details of how she found out about Jude, and when she had finished, Elinor admitted that Jude had confessed to her yesterday of her dealings with Edmund because she heard rumors flying around the school about Kierra and Edmund splitting up. It seemed by today though, the entire school knew that Kierra was through with her fiancé because of some affair. (Remus's involvement in the event seemed definite to all, but the matter of him being anyone's lover and the matter of his sexual orientation remained a mystery to all).

"I feel so embarrassed…" Kierra had sobbed, pushing aside her sandwich. "Everyone knows…my students know!"

"Think of it as a compliment." Pierre had said thoughtfully. When everyone looked at him strangely, he sighed. "Remember last 'ear ven Kitty 'ad an affair vit the caretaker?" Elinor and Kierra had nodded, while Remus had a fleeting image of Filch having an affair with Alicia Sinastra, the astronomy professor at Hogwarts. "Well," Pierre had continued, "No one really found out or even cared about it! The difference between you and Kitty is that you are popular and very much loved 'ere! The students buzz about your life because you're so interesting and likeable!"

Remus remembered Kierra feeling slightly better by Pierre's words, but later on in the day, he had seen Edmund come once again to the castle to meet up with Jude, and no doubt Kierra had found out about that. He only hoped that she hadn't taken it too badly…

Just then, as Remus had seated himself on the living room sofa with a thick hardcover book, a popping sound came and Kierra apparated in front of him, looking quite pleased.

"Guess what?" she squealed, so shrilly in fact that their next door neighbor, Celine Danglar, an old widow, tapped hard on the wall that they shared with what they presumed to be her cane. "Sorry Mrs. Danglar!" Kierra called into the wall. She turned excitedly to Remus, waving a letter in the air.

"Guess what?" she was practically bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "Harvey and Janine…they had a baby girl—Jacqueline!"

"Really? Wow! Congrat—oof!" Remus grunted as Kierra jumped onto the couch next to him with so much energy that her knees landed painfully hard against his thigh. She didn't seem to notice this, as she drew out a picture from her pocket and presented it to Remus, grinning broadly. He took the picture into his hands and looked at it. The baby was laying in her mother's arms, wrapped up in fluffy white blankets and revealing only her tiny pink face. She had wisps of blond hair laying flat against her head, and her bright blue eyes blinked a few times at them, and her mouth twitched slightly.

"She's smiling!" Kierra said excitedly. "I know it doesn't look like one…but she's a baby, she can't move her mouth much yet…but it was definitely an attempt at one!"

Remus laughed as he studied the picture. "You're right, I think she is. She's beautiful, Kierra…"

"She looks just like Nora, doesn't she?" Kierra asked, pocketing the photo.

"She definitely has her eyes…"

"God bless Janine for having such gorgeous eyes…" Kierra said solemnly. "And those adorable, chubby cheeks are Nora's too!"

Remus laughed. "I think all babies have chubby cheeks."

"Yes, but Nora's seem to stay. I love them though…make her look so cute, I always want to pinch them!" Kierra squealed, smiling brightly at Remus.

He laughed again. "Poor Nora, then…"

"You know, I think I'm going to pay them a visit this weekend…to see Jackie…"

"Jackie? What about Jacqueline?" Remus asked with a frown.

"Jackie's short for Jacqueline…"

"I know that! I meant…Jacqueline sounds nicer."

"It's too proper! Jackie sounds better…"

"It sounds boyish…like Jack…"

Kierra rolled her eyes. "I feel sorry for your kids, Remus. You're probably going to give them names like Fitzwilliam or Fanny or Napoleon…"

"Napoleon?"

Kierra shrugged. "I don't know…we're in France, so…"

Remus swore under his breath as something crashed at his feet. But before he could so much as pull out his wand, Kiera burst into the kitchen and gasped as she looked at the floor.

"My vase! Remus! I was almost done with it!" she cried.

"Calm down!' he said to her, and turning to the vase, he waved his wand and said "reparo." At once, the vase repaired itself into one piece. He picked it up and handed it to Kierra with a smile. "Next time, don't leave it sitting on the edge of the kitchen table. Actually…" he waved his hand at the table, which currently had paint bottles, brushes, Kierra's wand, and a paint-stained apron strewn across it. "It would be nice if you didn't turn this entire flat into an art studio…I mean, I just don't want to break or smear anything!" he added hastily when Kierra scowled at him. Her expression softened slightly.

"Sorry…" she said with a smile. "I'll try to be tidier." And with that, she began to clear up the mess at the kitchen table. Remus frowned slightly, feeling guilty now. He had opened his mouth to apologize, but as Kierra leaned forward to reach for a paint bottle that had rolled away, Remus let out a gasp instead and shut his eyes.

"What?" Kierra asked, looking terrified.

Remus opened his eyes, but looked anywhere but at Kierra. "Nothing, sorry…"

"What is it?" she asked again, looking at Remus curiously.

"Well…it's just…yourclothesarereallyshort…" he said quickly.

"Huh? Oh!" Kierra pulled down the oversize t-shirt she was wearing, smoothing it over her thighs—well, the small amount of thigh that it covered, anyway.

"I'm sorry…" Remus stammered, feeling himself blush. "I just…"

"No, don't worry" Kierra said, "I swear, I'm wearing knickers underneath. See?" and she lifted her shirt up a few inches to reveal her lavender colored brief-style underwear.

"Kierra!" Remus exclaimed, turning away at once.

"What?" she laughed, tugging down her shirt once more. "I've got swimsuits smaller than that"—

"That's not the point"—

"What? You can see a girl in a skimpy little swimsuit, but you can't see her in her underwear? That makes no sense!"

"No, but…you don't have to feel obligated to flash me!" Remus finally managed to say.

"I wasn't flashing you…and I was wearing briefs…not like a thong or anything!"

"No…but that puts me in mind, Kierra…I was taking a shower earlier, and well…"

"And what?"

"Well…you sort of…left your…er…laundry handing all over the place…"

"Oh! Well…I had to dry my clothes somewhere…" Kierra protested. "And as neither of us seem to be able to master a drying charm…"

"Right, I'll try to learn one this weekend then." Remus said.

Kierra glared at him as she passed by him, muttering something about really being a poof after all.

"Look," said Remus quietly, in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry, really, I am…I know I'm probably coming off as a bit annoying, but…er…it's just that…I've never lived with a woman before." He said quickly. "It's just sort of weird for me, having to see…well, you…er…feminine sorts...of things…everywhere…" he finished lamely.

Kierra broke into a smile. "Do they freak you out or something?" she asked, biting down on her lip to keep from laughing.

"No!" Remus said defensively, catching Kierra's attempt to suppress her laughter. "I'm just not used to it, that's all…"

"Oh" Kiera said, nodding in understanding. "I'm sorry…I'll try to…er…keep my stuff in my room then…I don't mind."

"No, it's ok!" Remus said at once, now feeling thoroughly stupid for bringing this up in the first place. "I should just suck it up and deal with it. I mean, if I can deal with Sirius leaving his underwear lying around, I can deal with yours. And at least yours are clean…" he added as an afterthought.

Kierra made a face of revulsion and then laughed with Remus. "Right, well, still…I'm a right slob…I should try to be somewhat tidy. I owe you that much. Anyway…" Kierra disappeared into her room and reemerged from it with bags in each of her hands. "I should go now…Janine and Harvey will be expecting me now."

Remus looked at her luggage and raised an eyebrow at her. "Aren't you just going for the weekend?"

Kierra jingled the bag in her left hand, causing it to make a rattling sound. "baby presents!" she said happily. "I found so many nice toys, and all these cute dresses! She'll just love them!"

Remus smiled. "I'm not sure that newborn babies have the capacity to love clothes…"

"Oh yeah? This girl's mother is Janine…and her sister is Nora. She will love clothes, trust me."

"If you say so. Well, say hello to them for me"—

"I will"—

"Oh, Kierra?"

"Mmm?"

"Your clothes…"

"Oh!"

Kierra dropped her bags and hurried into her room. She appeared a moment later, hopping into a pair of jeans. "This is why I need a flatmate…" she muttered as she zipped up her jeans.

"Remus!"

Sirius jumped up from the couch, quite startled, as Remus landed hard in the fireplace of 12 Grimmauld Place.

"Sirius!" Remus breathed, getting up and dusting himself. "Just thought I'd visit after all…wanted to surprise you though."

"But what about Kierra?" Sirius asked as he led Remus to the sofa and motioned him to sit down.

"Oh, well…good news, actually. Her brother and sister-in-law had a baby girl a few days ago, and well, she felt so much better since she got the news…she went to go visit them today. So I thought since I don't have any obligations toward her now, I should come and see you all, as I had planned."

"Excellent." Sirius said with a grin. "It's been a couple of weeks since you've been here. If only you came over a couple days earlier though…you missed a fabulous order meeting." He said, rolling his eyes.

Remus grinned. "Well, Snape wasn't at this one, was he? His classes already started."

"Thank God he wasn't there." Sirius said with a sigh. "But you know who was…that slimy ass wipe, Edmund…"

Remus looked at him, wide-eyed. How could he have forgotten? Edmund was made an order member when Kierra had joined. And of course, Dumbledore couldn't kick him out because of some personal issues he was having with Kierra. Plus, he knew too much about the order's business anyway…

"So what happened?" Remus asked. "I take it most everyone knows about him and Kierra…"

"Well, what else could we do?" Sirius said bitterly. "Act as if nothing had happened. Dumbledore even came here early to tell us that…"

"Really?"

"Well, no…he came early to tell me not to do anything rash when Edmund arrived. What did he think I'd do? Hex him into oblivion for ruining Kierra's life?"

"Yeah, maybe…"

Sirius scowled at him. "Dominique took the news pretty badly, you know. She was devastated."

"Did she already leave?"

Sirius nodded. "Left this morning. She was a bit peeved at me too, you know…because I didn't tell her straightaway. But we had our anniversary when your letter came, and I didn't want to spoil it for her. So I waited til the next morning…anyway, she wanted to visit you two in Aveyron, but she doesn't know if she'll have time. She said if she doesn't, she'll for sure write to Kierra."

Remus nodded. As he did so, something shiny across the room caught his eyes.

"Sirius"—

"I bought it for Dominique as an anniversary/I'm-sorry-for-forgetting-our-anniversary gift."

"Bit extravagant, don't you think?"

Sirius smiled knowingly as he twiddled his thumbs. "Well, anything to keep the ladies happy…"

"And if it means buying their love…" Remus said with a grin.

Sirius scowled at him. "So, how's living with the ex?" he asked, deciding to punish Remus a little for his comment.

"It's gotten better," Remus said, "She was moping about at first, but the moment she found out about her new niece, she was totally uplifted. She's been doing her pottery and painting and all of her other art stuff like crazy, and shopping for baby things quite a bit…been very busy."

"Well, that's good. But…I mean, how is it living with her? Weird at all?" Sirius asked.

"Well, a little…but not because it's Kierra. I mean, I haven't lived with anyone in a while"—

"You live with me right now!" Sirius cut in.

"Yeah, but this is a big house…I meant you know, flats…sharing small spaces. And I've never lived with a woman before…so…it's going to take some getting used to."

Sirius laughed. "Good luck with that, mate. I remember when D and I first got married and moved in together, it was absolute hell…"

"Really? I thought the hell didn't start until that co-worker of yours started hitting on you."

"Yeah well, that was an emotional hell…" Sirius said with a sigh. "But…living with Dominique and getting used to all of her weird, feminine ways…it was just a hell like no other."

Remus laughed. "Does D know?"

"Course not…and don't tell her either!"

"My lips are sealed."

"Good…and it's not like it was too terrible. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love her and all, but geez…she's a complete freak, the way she went psycho over toilet seats being left up! But you know…it turned out alright though. Living with her did have its compensations…"

"Like what?"

Sirius laughed. "Ones that you couldn't benefit from, mate, since Kierra's just a friend." He said in a mimicking voice. Remus scowled at him, but Sirius continued. "Unless of course, she's a friend with benefits"—

"Sirius!"

"Oh, sorry…" Sirius said, looking slightly apologetic. "You're right…she just broke up with Edmund the wanker. Well, give it some time…maybe a month or so…she'll be tolerably over him by then…but she won't have much confidence in herself. She'll be really vulnerable…you can swoop down on her then, mate"—

"Sirius, I am not going to woo her…and especially not when she's feeling most vulnerable…and how have you figured that all out anyway?"

Sirius shrugged. "Women are generally vulnerable a few months after a big breakup." And after rolling his eyes at Remus, he added, "and you'll never get anywhere with a woman if you call it wooing…geez Moony…"

"Oh, Janine!" Kierra sighed as she joined her sister-in-law at the table in the kitchen, where she was nursing baby Jackie. "Sometimes, I just want to pack up all my stuff and move back here to London, where everyone is! Where everyone speaks English…properly!" she added, thinking about her years spent in America.

"Well, why don't you?" Janine asked. "When does your contract expire anyway?"

"Now for another three years."

"Oh…" Janine said glumly.

"I mean, I do like it there…but…" Kierra sighed. "I think this whole Jude/Edmund fiasco has got me all wound up…I can't believe they've got the power to make me want to run away…"

"Oh sweety…" Janine put the hand she wasn't using to support her baby on Kierra's back and stroked it. "You're just a bit upset right now…and it's perfectly normal for people to want to go back to their families, where they're most comfortable…the urge to move back will pass soon enough, I'm sure."

Kierra smiled gratefully at her sister-in-law and sighed. "I certainly hope so."

"It will." Janine said, squeezing Kierra's hand reassuringly and smiling.

There were a few moments of silence, which was only broken when Jackie let out a tiny burp. It had been soft, yet enough to cause Janine and Kierra to squeal with delight.

"She's so cute!" Kierra said as she took Jackie in her arms to give Janine a break. She planted a kiss on the baby's chubby, pink cheek. "I just want to take her home with me and keep her!"

Janine laughed. "I'm sorry…you're just going to have to make your own. Oh, that reminds me, how's living with Remus?"

"How did that remind you of Remus?" Kierra asked indignantly.

Janine rolled her eyes. "I don't know…you used to date him, didn't you? Dating leads to sex…sex leads to babies…oh I'm sorry, did I spoil the surprise for you? I thought you already knew where babies came from…" Janine said innocently, looking quite amused when Kierra's mouth dropped open in shock. Kierra then scowled at her, but she continued, "So…how's living with him? Is it weird?"

Kierra paused to consider the matter. "Well, no…not really. I don't think so… Though, I think he might be finding it a bit awkward, living with a woman. He practically flipped at the fact that I had some bras drying off in the bathroom. You'd think he'd never seen them before…"

"Woah, Kierra…he flipped"—

"Oh, no, not like that! I mean…it scared him. Not…turned him on or anything…" she said, blushing. "I swear, he's so…not like a guy. I was wearing this big t-shirt today, and apparently it showed too much…and he made a big deal out of it…and he practically cowered when I showed him my underwear"—

"You showed him your underwear?"

"Er…well…they were briefs, you know…what?" she asked when Janine shook her head in dismay. "He covered his eyes and yelled at me!"

"Kierra, look…nothing against Remus or anything…he seems like a wonderful person…and to be honest, I'm really impressed with…well, his modesty, I guess you could say. But…he's still a guy, so just…just keep that in mind, would you?"

Kierra looked at Janine exasperatedly, but sighed and nodded her head. "Sure."

As Kierra tucked Jackie away in her basinet later that evening, Janine's words played over and over in her mind. "He's still a guy, so just keep that in mind, would you?" So what if he was a guy? They weren't in any danger of each other now, were they?


	50. Chapter 51: Sirius the OxyMoron

_A/N: First, I want to say thanks to all the readers who got to chapter 51 early and didn't tell me off for all the typos--I was so tired when I finished I didn't feel like editing. When I went to look over it a few hours later, I was thoroughly embarrassed at the number of mistakes and prayed that no one had read it yet...lol anyway..._

_On another note, as the release of HBP and the end of this fic draw nearer, I've decided that I most likely won't be doing a sequel. At least not right away. I guess it depends on what new info we get from HBP and whether or not it'll contradict my storylines. I'd condense the plots from the sequel into this fic, but besides not having enough time, they're much more complicated and darker, and would require a fic of its own. The other thing is that I really want to try my hand at a few other storylines before I further immerse myself in kierra and remus's troubled love lives (and Dominique's too!) So if I ever do get tempted to re-delve into these characters' lives, I have a plot ready. I just think it'll be some time before I get to it. Hope you stick around regardless of what comes! Anyway, enough rambling. Chapter 52, here we come: _

Chapter 52: Sirius the Oxymoron

The next two months passed with little incident in Remus's home; neither in the flat he shared with Kierra, nor in the house he shared with Sirius. He was finally getting used to living with Kierra, and getting used to Sirius's lewd jokes about their living arrangements. Jude was rarely seen in the castle, as she had taken to avoiding Kierra and Remus at school, and Edmund, according to Elinor, was looking for a job in Paris. Kierra seemed unaffected by the news or at least gave the impression that she didn't care, and continued to leave her underwear lying around the flat and dress in unladylike manners. Most students at the Aveyron Academy maintained that he was a poof, which was just as well, since he had recently considered becoming one…

While he had gotten used to living with Kierra, he still couldn't help the occasional wanting pangs he received several inches below his naval. But he refused to even consider going down that path again—breaking up with Kierra had been extremely painful the first time around and he didn't want to risk their friendship. Anyway, Kierra was too busy enjoying her single life at the moment to bother with a relationship. Not that he wanted to be in one with her…just to be with _someone_…he just happened to feel these pangs around Kierra because she lived with him. Had he been living with any other woman, surely the affects would have been the same. Only what other woman was there? There seemed to be no one out there for him, leading Remus to believe that perhaps he were better of seeking male companionship instead of female. Now, the only matter to take care of was getting his self to actually be attracted to men…

"Remus!"

Remus's thoughts were interrupted by Kierra's voice, which seemed to be coming from the living room. He came out of his room to find her standing by the door with Elinor, her husband, and two children, whom Remus presumed to be their children.

"Oh—Hello!" Remus said, startled to find the family standing there. He smiled and looked briefly at Kierra, who was beaming. "Wasn't expecting"—

"Jacques and Elinor have got to go to Paris, Remus," said Kierra, "Jacques has gotten in touch with Roxanne Dante. She's the"—

"Senior undersecretary to the minister, I know." Finished Remus. "Dumbledore mentioned her at the last Order meeting. Are you going to see her then?"

Jacques nodded. "She left a message for us, asking if ve could visit 'er tonight for dinner. We'll most likely stay in Paris for ze weekend, in 'opes zat we can get convince 'er zat you-know-who is back."

"We're very lucky to 'ave an audience with her," added Elinor, "She is so high up in the French ministry…"

"Let's just cross our fingers though. She keeps up with about every wizarding paper in Europe, which would include the _Daily Prophet_, and you've seen how they've been discrediting Dumbledore and Harry Potter…and they're the two most important figureheads in this movement against Voldemort." Said Remus. He cocked an eyebrow when he saw Elinor, Jacques and their children flinch at hearing the name. Honestly, the man's even struck fear in French wizards…

"Right…" Elinor said after she recovered from hearing Voldemort's name. "But see, you guys said this 'as started from the work of Rita Skeeter last year, no?" Remus nodded. "Well, we did some research, and we found zat she did a horrible piece on Roxanne a few years ago—remember, when there was a bit of a strain between the French and British ministry? Zere is no doubt zat Roxanne saw it. So we think that if we bring in Rita Skeeter's name, she'll be less likely to take ze _Prophet _seriously!"

"Excellent." Remus said, beaming. He looked briefly to Elinor's children, wondering what had brought the whole family over to their flat. But just then, he saw it. Resting against the wall was a small pink suitcase that looked like it had been designed especially for kids…

"Anyway, we thought it would be best to leave the children behind for this trip," said Elinor. "Kierra's just given us her consent, but we wanted to make sure it was alright with you if Alejandro and Georgiana could stay here. It would just be the weekend, and we'll try to get back as soon as possible on Sunday…"

Remus smiled. "Of course they can stay."

"Excellent." Jacques said, and beaming at his children, he began to give them instructions in French about the behavior that was expected them. Georgiana, who appeared to be a year or two older than the tiny Alejandro, nodded quickly, occasionally stealing glances at Remus and Kierra. Alejandro, who looked about three years old, was staring off into space, picking his nose.

"Alright, we'll be back as soon as we can on Sunday!" Elinor said, as she kissed her children goodbye.

"We'll see you then," said Remus as he showed them to the door, "you two have a safe trip!" And with a final wave to their children, Elinor and Jacques left the flat.

"Well," Kierra said brightly, turning to the children, "let's get you two settled! Alejandro, don't pick your nose"—

Alejandro withdrew his finger from his nostril, staring at Kierra, expressionless. His light blond hair was an untidy mess that reminded Remus of Harry and James Potter. Alejandro shifted his bright blue eyes to Remus, and slowly backed away to hold his older sister's hand.

"Oh come now, why do you look so scared?" Kierra asked as she picked up Alejandro and headed to the kitchen. "Remus doesn't bite!"

Remus smiled slightly, and then turned to Georgiana, who had already made herself at home, sitting on the living room carpet, and unpacking her little suitcase.

She looked almost exactly like her brother, except her hair was light brown.

"Mummy put a reductor charm on all my things," she said in English too brisk for a five year old French girl. "Can you please make them big again, Uncle Remus?"

Remus beamed. _Uncle Remus._ He loved the sound of it. "Of course," he replied, pulling out his wand.

"Magic!"

Remus turned around at hearing Alejandro's shrill cry. He ran to his sister's side as fast as his little legs could carry him, and took a seat next to her, watching Remus avidly. Kierra came in a moment later, wiping her hands in a towel.

"Alejandro loves magic." Georgiana explained when she saw the amused look on Remus's face.

Remus nodded. "Right. Well...it's just an enlargement charm I as going to do...nothing special." And with a wave of his wand, the contents of Georgiana's suitcase

enlarged to their normal sizes, which was followed by a squeal of delight from Alejandro.

"Again!"

Remus smiled as he put his wand away. "Not again. Your clothes will become too big for you to wear!"

Alejandro frowned but did not protest. Instead, he reverted to picking his nose again.

"Alejandro!" Kierra exclaimed. "I _just_ washed your hands!"

"Ew—bogeys!" Georgiana said with a look of revulsion on her face as Alejandro pulled a finger-full from his nose. Kierra pulled him away by his clean hand and led him to the kitchen to wash his hands again.

"No more putting your finger in you nose. Do you understand?" Kierra could be heard saying through the sound of running water. Alejandro made no response.

"Uncle Remus," came the voice of Georgiana, and Remus turned to her. "Will you play with me?"

"Of course!" Remus beamed, kneeling down on the carpet next to Georgiana. "What do you want to play?"

"I brought my dolls," she replied, pulling out several plastic dolls from her pink suitcase. Remus raised an eyebrow. They were all wearing dresses. He would have to play a girl.

"Oh, bad memories from first year…" he muttered, shuttering at the memory of his first week at Hogwarts, when a group of seventh year Gryffindors had kidnapped him and Peter, and forced them into dresses before returning them to the great hall. Georgiana looked up at him curiously, clearly not understanding.

"Don't you like dolls?" she asked, frowning slightly in a way that made Remus feel almost guilty for not liking dolls.

"No of course I do!" Remus said brightly. "I love dolls. In fact I used to have one…" Well, that was somewhat true. His mother collected dolls when he was little, and he technically owned the collection when his mother passed on years ago…

"Really? I didn't know that!"

Remus and Georgiana looked up to see Kierra standing over them, holding hands with Alejandro. She grinned at Remus, who blushed in return.

"Er—well, they weren't mine…they were my mum's…" he began to explain, but Kierra cut him off.

"It's alright, Remus. We all know you're a bit of a weirdo…Anyway, no time for playing now. It's late. They should go to bed now."

Remus looked at the clock and saw that is was nearly 10:30; probably way past their bedtime.

"But Aunt Kierra"—

"No buts, Georgiana," Kierra said kindly but firmly, "I know your parents don't like you kids staying up late. You'll have plenty of time to play tomorrow morning, alright?"

Georgiana looked at Remus, hoping to make an alliance with him. But he smiled and shook his head at her. "She's right. We can play all day tomorrow though."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Georgiana smiled slightly and pushed her light brown hair out of her face as she pulled out her sleeping bag and pillow. Alejandro immediately fell onto the fluffy pile and giggled.

"Pillows!" he squealed, grabbing a pillow by a corner and whacking it over his sister's head, who gave a small cry, followed by a laugh.

"Ok, no pillow fights!" Kierra said, pulling the pillow out of Alejandro's small hands. "Remus, why don't you take him to the bathroom, and I'll get their beds ready…"

"The…bathroom?" Remus asked, looking at Kierra uncertainly and then at Alejandro.

"Yeah…I'm not sure if he's toilet trained. Just go with him and see if he needs help. And make sure he washes his hands!" Kierra said as she watched Remus lead Alejandro to the bathroom.

"Yes ma'am!" Remus called through the bathroom. Alejandro managed to go by himself, only requiring Remus's assistance for grabbing toilet paper and being hoisted up to the sink to wash his hands. As they were drying up, Remus could hear Georgiana flipping rapidly the pages of a book.

"Please read it to me, Aunt Kierra!" she said. "This is my favorite book! My mother reads it to me"—

"Alright…" came Kierra's voice.

Remus came out of the bathroom with Alejandro and found Kierra and Georgiana sitting on the children's makeshift beds, reading a story book together.

"'Sss…you can't defeat me! I am the king of Ssssserpentsss…' said the basilisk to the tiny insect…" Kierra read in a deep dark voice. She paused, and brought her voice up to a high squeak. "'Bzz…I may be…bzz…small in size…bzz..but I have a power you have not! Bzz..' Oh, hey Remus!" she said, still in her squeaky voice. She made a face as Remus laughed, and reverted to her own voice. "Can you help Alejandro change?"

"Sure…" he replied, catching Alejandro's pajamas that Kierra tossed at him, and leading Alejandro to his room to help him change. "Come on Alejandro…" As he helped the toddler get the buttons of his shirt into the proper buttonholes, Remus continued to listen to Kierra's story telling. She had just howled like a wolf, causing Georgiana to giggle. He couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy as he heard the two girls laugh. How did Kierra all of a sudden get so good with kids? She was supposed to hate them. And there she was, exerting authority over them like they were her own kids, reading bedtime stories…doing voices to entertain—

"Uncle Remus!"

Remus looked down at Alejandro, who had fallen over and was giggling. He had both his legs stuck in one leg of his pajamas. Remus couldn't help but laugh with Alejandro as he picked him up and placed him on his bed. "Alright, let's try this again. One leg at a time…"

* * *

The following morning, Remus grunted loudly as he felt something land hard on his stomach. Whatever it was had begun to jump up and down on his bed, once or twice landing on Remus's legs.

"Play-time! Play-time!" Alejandro chanted in rhythm with his jumps. Despite the pain of having been trampled over by a three year old, Remus grinned as he pulled Alejandro down to sit on his lap. Just then, Kierra appeared at the door, toothbrush in her mouth.

"How long have you all been up?" Remus asked, as he set Alejandro down on the ground and began to get out of bed himself. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was 9 a.m. A bit early to be up on a Saturday morning…

"'Or'anna sti' a'leep" Kierra said through her mouthful of toothpaste. She dashed to the bathroom and spitting out her toothpaste, she returned a moment later. "Alejandro's been up for ten minutes. I go off to the loo for a minute and the little terror's gone and eaten half the sugar cookies in the pantry."

Remus rolled his eyes as he passed by Kierra at the door. "No wonder. He nearly knocked the wind out of me just now…" A few minutes later, Remus found him self dressing up to go out and buy groceries, as Alejandro had thought he was old enough to pour his own glass of milk. Though the shattered glass had been instantly repaired, they were now out of milk. Just as Remus had reached for his overcoat, Kierra stumbled into his room, looking quite lost.

"Have you seen my wand?" she asked, glancing around his room. "I could've sworn that I left it on my desk last night. Little punk must've taken it…"

Remus shook his head and followed Kierra out into the living room. Just then, she stopped in her track, looking slightly panicked. "What if he threw it away?"

But before Remus could answer, Kierra had dashed off to the kitchen to rummage through the bin. Remus watched her for a moment, slightly amused, before he turned away and looked at the sleeping Georgiana. Their futon style sofa had been pulled out as a bed for the two siblings to sleep on. Georgiana was curled up in a ball on one side of the bed, hugging a stuffed unicorn. Just as Remus turned to go to the door, something underneath the futon caught his eye. He crawled onto all fours and reached underneath the bed. He smiled as his fingers closed around Kierra's wand.

"Kierra—oof!"

Remus grunted as he felt a familiar weight fall on his back. He glanced over his shoulder to find Alejandro straddling him like he was a horse, and holding onto the back of his shirt like they were his reigns. His eyes were glimmering with excitement…or maybe sugar…

"Horsey!" he squealed, giving Remus's shirt a tug. "Go!"

Remus laughed as he reached back and tried to pull Alejandro off. "I have to go"—

"Horseyyyy…."

Remus saw Alejandro pout. He sighed and faced forward. All his children would have to do is pout to get it their way. He would be a horrible father…

Alejandro cheered with delight as Remus crawled around the living room in circles for him, occasionally getting up on his "hind legs", while holding his passenger on board with his free hands, and letting out a loud "naaay" for fun.

"Uncle Horsey!" Alejandro laughed, tugging Remus's shirt as he had begun to lose energy and slow down. "More!"

"Uncle Horsey's pooped…" Remus muttered, slowly trudging back to their starting point.

"Hey, Uncle Horsey?" asked a higher, more feminine voice. Remus looked over his shoulder to see Kierra standing behind them, grinning broadly. Why did she always catch him in odd moments?

"Er—found your wand!" Remus said, handing Kierra her wand as Alejandro slid off his back and set off to wake up his sister. Remus stood up and pretended to dust his clothes, trying to act as if he hadn't done anything silly moments ago.

Kierra grinned as he headed towards the door. "Hey"—she started quite casually—"can I ride you too?" She pressed her lips firmly together in order to keep from laughing as Remus wheeled around. How she loved to see him go red…

Only he wasn't red when he faced her. Not even pink. He looked…normal. Except he had a small smile on his face and was looking rather coolly at her…"Sorry, you had your turn a long time ago."

And before Kierra could react, Remus had left for the store. She frowned slightly, not paying heed to the pillow fight Georgiana and Alejandro were currently engaged in. Remus was supposed to be a modest little…nun. He was supposed to blush furiously, and mumble something like "Oh…I don't know...I'm sorry…I don't get it…" Not throwing the joke back at her. And certainly not one almost as dirty as hers! Of course, it was just a joke, so it meant nothing to her, but still…it was annoying when jokes backfired. It always made her feel a bit stupid…

* * *

Remus shifted the weight of the milk bottle from one arm to the other as he stood in line at the checkout, glancing at the covers of magazines that sat on a nearby stand. There was a photo of a beautiful brunette woman posing on the cover of _Mademoiselle_. She was sporting shimmering orange top, which might as well have been off since it was see-through, revealing her bra. Next to the model's face in big bold letters, was _10 Tried and True Ways to Get Him Begging for More_. Is this what they talked about in muggle magazines? Or was it women's magazines in general? Remus made a mental note to swipe one of Kierra's _Sorcière à la Mode_ copies that came in via post every couple of weeks. No wonder women always knew so much about men—they were reading things like these. As Remus rummaged in his pockets for muggle money, he realized that this explained why Dominique knew so much about the ways of men—her flat in Paris was literally cluttered with these types of magazines.

As Remus hurried up the steps to the flat he shared with Kierra, he wondered how it was possible that editors were able to fill over a hundred pages of their magazines with information on fashion and men…didn't it ever get redundant? _I mean, what if they accidentally gave the same sex tip twice in the same year? _Remus thought to himself amusedly. The thought of sex however, immediately reminded Remus of Kierra's little quip she had made about ten minutes ago. She hadn't really been serious, had she? Of course not…but she had looked a bit startled at his reply. _Probably not the most Remus-like thing to say, _he reasoned. Perhaps it had been inappropriate to say…it might have made her uncomfortable, mentioning their past, even if it was in a joking manner. What was he thinking? Joking like that… _Idiot_… he thought to himself as he let himself into his flat. Perhaps he should apologize to her for being so crude. Only she seemed a bit too occupied to be bothered with an apology at the moment…

Music was blaring loudly from her room and there was laughter, presumably from her and the children. Just then, the sound of Mrs. Danglar's cane whacking at the wall came followed by a "Tu'n ze music down!" Kierra had obviously not heard, as no effort was made to lower the music. Remus placed his groceries on the kitchen table and quietly approached Kierra's room, and stopped at the doorway. Georgiana and Alejandro were on Kierra's bed, bouncing to the rhythm of the music, waving their arms maniacally in the air. Kierra, who had her back turned to Remus, was facing the children, hairbrush in hand, and was singing along loudly with the song…and doing an accompanying dance that looked a bit inappropriate for young children to see. Georgiana and Alejandro looked up to see Remus and waved to him, but Kierra was too involved in her performance to notice his entrance. Putting his finger to his mouth to signal the children to not say anything, Remus tiptoed into the room until he was right behind Kierra—

"_You know you want to make me shout! Take my finger! Shout! Throw my hands back! Shout!"1_

Remus winced slightly. God, she had a horrible voice for singing… Still, perhaps her dancing skills made up for it, he thought as he watched her swivel her hips around. He moved up closer and began to dance with her, exaggerating a few of the head-bobs when he felt appropriate. Georgiana and Alejandro continued dancing on the bed, jumping up and down on the mattress, only now they were giggling. Kierra laughed, presuming that she had done something funny, and sang louder and danced with more exaggeration.

"_Hey hey hey hey! Hey Hey Hey_—Hey!"

Kierra had bumped her hip against Remus and jumped backwards from surprise, dropping her brush on the floor. Remus stopped dancing and grinned at Kierra, who had flushed to a bright pink.

"You got back quickly!" she said shrilly as she hurried over to the other side of her room to turn off her muggle music device, ignoring the protests of Georgiana and Alejandro.

"Well, I only had to pick up milk…" he replied, still grinning at Kierra. She scowled at him in return.

"By the way, post came in while you were gone. We got mail from Dominique and Si—Snuffles." Kierra finally said, deciding to change the subject as she led Remus into the kitchen and picked up two envelopes from the table and handed them to him.

"The seals are broken"—

"Well, obviously…I read them!"

"Why?"

"Didn't you hear me? I said _we_ got mail from them. They were addressed to _both_ of us."

"Oh, right…" Remus said, glancing up briefly at Kierra and raising an eyebrow at her. "Sorry, I didn't know"—

"They're my friends too, you know…"

"I know…" Remus frowned at her briefly as he opened the first letter, wondering why she was getting so testy. Was it simply because he caught her dancing around and singing? Perhaps it was that time of the month for Kierra… "So you know then that Dominique can't visit anytime soon because of her rehearsal schedule?" he asked as he read through Dominique's brief letter.

"Mmm hmm…"

"So…what shall we tell Dominique about our Christmas plans? Can I assume you're going to your brother's?" asked Remus, scanning the last few lines of Dominique's letter, asking them what their plans were for the holidays.

"Yeah," Kierra replied as she peered around to make sure Alejandro and Georgiana hadn't inflicted any damage on her bedroom in her absence, "and you're going back to Grimmauld place aren't you?"

"Yeah…" Remus replied absently, folding up Dominique's letter and opening up Sirius's. "Everything alright with Sirius?"

"Er…just about…" Kierra said slowly, glancing up at Remus and looking at him expectantly. He looked at her, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"Just about?"

"Well, you know…he's a bit moody, isn't he? Maybe he was just feeling irritable when he wrote"—

Kierra's voice drowned out as Remus read Sirius's letter:

_27 November 1995_

_Remus and Kierra,_

_Hope you two are well. Thanks Remus, for the heads up on your absence this weekend. I'm sure babysitting a couple of kids is an excruciating task that no way in hell could Kierra handle alone. (No offense, Kierra…I'm sure you caught onto the sarcasm.) Consider yourself lucky that there wasn't any big order meeting planned, or that you didn't have guard duty or a full moon to worry about. Just make sure you're here next week for the meeting—It'll be a Hogsmeade Weekend at Hogwarts and it'll be the perfect time for Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape to get away from the school to come for the meeting. Kierra, try to come if you can. Understandable if you can't. Remus…incidentally, were you ever planning on coming up here on a weekend that won't be spent on guard duty or under a full moon? It seems every time you get a free weekend, something comes up that prevents you from making it. And so far it's always been something to do with helping out Kierra, the old girlfriend…Pretty crazy coincidence, eh? You know, if there's anything that's your downfall Remus, it's your habit of lying. Always keeping a secret…Always ashamed about something... And I'd think that by now, after you, James, and I had that fallout over who was spying, you'd learn to be more open and trusting of your friends, so they could trust you too. So you'd rather spend more time sipping champagne with Kierra than sipping firewhiskey with me. You don't have to put up a front with me. I know what she looks like, mate. I don't blame you. Anyway, see you next week if you're not busy._

_Cheers_

_Sirius _

That idiot. That stupid, unhinged…prat. He had written this to him _and Kierra_…Sure, he had probably gotten so wrapped up in his feelings that he forgot he was addressing his letter to the both of them, but still…there was no reason to…he didn't have to rant about it…he had no right to think…he wasn't…he didn't prefer Kierra to Sirius!

"Er—Remus?"

Remus wheeled around to see Kierra—she was balancing Alejandro on one hip, and with her opposite, free hand she held Georgiana's hand. She wasn't exactly looking him in the eye, but was instead glancing around his middle. "I was just going to take them to the park…I think it's a bit stuffy in the apartment…"

"Oh, alright"—

"You can stay home, if you'd like…"

Remus had opened his mouth to consent, but instead found himself asking if he could come along too. "Well…ok…if you want…" She said quickly, leading the children to the door. "Don't feel like you have to though"—

"No, I just read er—Snuffle's letter"—

"Who's Snuffles?" Georgiana giggled.

"Er…a friend of mine." Remus answered with a smile. Georgiana laughed again. "What a silly name…"

"Listen," Remus started, following Kierra and the children out the door, "he was just…whining. Just annoyed that I haven't been spending all my free time with him…So he's blaming the easiest person…you."

"Me?" Kierra asked as they crossed the street towards Reine Parc, the neighborhood park.

"I've only had a few weekends where I've been absolutely free of responsibilities from the order, and I've spend them all here…and incidentally, they were because of you…" he said slowly.

"Me?" she repeated.

"Well…when you found out about Edmund…and then when you needed help moving…and now this weekend"—

"You didn't have to stay to help," Kierra said briskly, "I've babysat them before…"

"For a whole weekend?"

"No…just a few hours…but that's hardly important"—

"If you didn't need help, you could've told me when I wrote to Sirius canceling my plans to go to London. But you didn't, so I assumed"—

"Well, don't assume next time!"

Georgiana and Alejandro looked up at Kierra timidly, and then to Remus, but neither of them noticed that they were being stared at. "Look, if you're all upset because you think I'm hiding the fact that I like you, don't worry yourself over it, because I don't." Remus said tetchily, though trying hard to keep his voice steady. "Snuffles just likes his joke. He has nothing better to do than to drop little hints about you, as if I've been sitting around brooding over you these past sixteen or so years. Believe me, Kierra. I'm not attracted to you, and I don't prefer your or Snuffles over one another. Nor have I been sabotaging events in our lives to keep me here on my free weekends. I have absolutely nothing against you, Kierra, but I hope you're not going to shun me simply because you take everything Snuffles says literally."

Kierra said nothing. Georgiana and Alejandro had lost interest in the conversation and were now running several feet ahead of them, chasing a butterfly. "Sorry…" Remus said hoarsely. "Didn't mean to be rude"—

"No, it's ok…you…you're not rude." Kierra said quietly.

Remus looked at her skeptically. "So…you don't think I'm going to come on to you then?"

Kierra smiled slightly. "No…sorry, you're right…I shouldn't have…well, shouldn't have taken Sirius so…_seriously_…" she laughed. "He's an oxymoron."

"More like a moron…" Remus muttered, causing Kierra to laugh again.

* * *

The day had been bright and sunny, allowing for Alejandro and Georgiana to play to their hearts' content, while Kierra lay out on the grass with Remus with her capris rolled up several inches to work on her tan. ("Don't look at me like that Remus, you've probably got the whitest ass in the country!" Kierra said with a scowl.) They complained about how tiresome it was to watch Alejandro and Georgiana, but agreed that it was still fun and quite rewarding at times too. ("Oh come off it," Kierra laughed, "you know you love being called Uncle Remus!") They argued over whose rear was paler, Remus's or Snape's (and finally agreed that Sirius probably beat them both), discussed their plans for recruiting into the Order a few werewolves Remus had recently gotten friendly with, and had reminisced through seven years of Hogwarts, though they decided to drop the subject when they recalled the time they had made love in an empty classroom while the entire school was outside watching a quidditch match, and the mere memory had made then both blush crimson.

Soon, the sun began to dip, and clouds filled the sky. By the time they reached their flat, the sun had set completely, and it had begun to rain very hard. Remus made a large cauldron of soup for dinner, much to the dismay of Alejandro, who stuck his tongue out at Remus when he saw the vegetables in his bowl. The evening had largely gone by quietly, save for the tantrum Georgiana threw when Alejandro popped the head off one of her dolls, which had only subsided when Remus assured her that Ginny the Gymnast would be O.K. when he fixed her, and would definitely make it to the Olympics. By ten o'clock Remus was in his room, finishing up his letter to Sirius; he needed to be reprimanded a bit for his careless letter—if he were going to write like that, he should've at least not addressed it to Kierra—but at the same time, remind him that he greatly missed Sirius's company, and that he wished he could join him at 12 Grimmauld Place. Just as he sealed the letter and dropped it on top of the letter he had written to Dominique, a strike of lightning from outside lit up the room, and a moment later a loud clap of thunder followed it. Remus heard a squeal coming from the living room, followed by the sound of scurrying footsteps and a door creaking open.

"Georgiana!" he heard Kierra exclaim. "Are you alright? Did the thunder scare you?" There was no answer, so he assumed that Georgiana had nodded in response. "Oh, it's just a storm! As long as you're inside during a storm"—

"But what if he comes?" Remus heard Georgiana squeal.

"Who?" Kierra asked.

"The werewolf!" Georgiana hissed. "Remember? In the story you read last night"—

Remus heard Kierra laugh. "It's just a story!"

"But…the werewolf came out to attack in the storm, Aunt Kierra!"

"Georgiana, it was a full moon in the story."

"But it was a storm too!"

"A coincidence then. Werewolves only come out during full moons."

"Is tonight a full moon?" Georgiana squeaked.

"Nope. You're safe." Kierra replied in a reassuring voice.

"When's the next full moon?"

Remus heard Kierra laugh again. "It doesn't matter. You don't go running around in the middle of the night, do you?"

"No…"

"Then you have nothing to worry about." Kierra said with finality.

There was a moment or two of silence. Then Remus heard Georgiana pipe up again, "Aunt Kierra, where do werewolves go when it's not a full moon?"

"Well…" Though their voices were slightly muffled due to the barrier of the wall between them, Remus had the distinct impression that Kierra had lost a bit of her confidence. "they…they're humans! Normal people, like you and me…they lead normal lives…"

"They're people?" Remus heard Georgiana ask disbelievingly.

"Of course!" Kierra laughed. "They're perfectly normal! Just once a month, during the full moon, they turn into werewolves. But usually, they're smart enough to remember when the next full moon is, so they can go and hide somewhere, so they don't hurt anyone."

"You mean…they don't _want_ to hurt anyone?"

"Of course not! No animal ever _wants_ to hurt anyone"—

But I thought you said they were people…"

'Yes…well, they are…it's just once a month, they turn into something of an animal…and so their minds become like animals…they don't think about what's right and wrong. So if they do something bad, they don't realize it…does that make sense?"

"Sort of…" Georgiana said uncertainly.

"So don't worry. Like I said, most werewolves are very good people the rest of the month, and they try their best to stay away from humans during the full moon. You're safe, ok?"

"Ok…" Georgiana said. "Aunt Kierra?"

"Hmm?"

"How do you know? Do you know werewolves?"

"Er…well…I did know one…"

"Really?" Remus heard Georgiana ask excitedly. He held his breath. What was Kierra doing? She wouldn't…

"Yeah!" he heard Kierra say, "And he was a really nice man….what? He was! You know what else? He was a good kisser too!"

"Eww! Aunt Kierra!" Remus heard Georgiana exclaim, which was followed by a burst of giggles from both girls. Remus relaxed slightly. Good kisser indeed. Kierra was something else…talking so freely about her experiences with werewolves…

Just then, another clap of thunder boomed from outside, and a second later, Alejandro came bolting into Remus's room, blanket in one hand, and Georgiana's stuffed unicorn in the other. Before Remus could say anything, Alejandro had run to his side, clutching Remus at the knees and looking up at him fearfully.

"Ah—Alejandro, it's alright…" Remus said with a smile, running his hand through the boy's hair. "It's just thunder."

"Why is it so angry?" he whimpered. "And…and where's my sister?"

"Your sister's in Aunt Kierra's room…I think the thunder frightened her too. And the thunder isn't angry. It's just…"

"Sad?" Alejandro suggested earnestly.

Remus laughed. "Well, to be honest, I don't think thunder has feelings. It just happens to make a loud noise…"

"It sounds scary!" Alejandro said crossly as he climbed into Remus's lap, clutching tightly to his sister's unicorn.

"And so it does." Remus fought the temptation of telling Alejandro to think about his favorite things, realizing he wouldn't be able to sing about it as well as the muggle performer Julie Andrews, nor did he think it would seem right if he had said that "_raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens"_2 were amongst his favorite things…

Just then, Kierra and Georgiana appeared at the door, the latter looking quite frightened. "Roxy!" she cried shrilly, running towards Alejandro and Remus. For a moment, Remus wondered if Georgiana had an imaginary friend, but a second later he saw her hugging her unicorn like there was no tomorrow.

"We were wondering where Alejandro had snuck off to!" Kierra said brightly, and with a wink she added, "and Roxy, of course…Did the thunder scare you too, Alejandro?"

Another clap of thunder sounded, and her question was answered as Alejandro buried his face in Remus's chest. "I want Uncle Remus!"

But before Remus could say anything, Georgiana had piped up again. "But I don't want to sleep all alone!"

Remus gently pulled Alejandro off his lap and smiled at him. "Why don't you stay with your sister? You can use each other's company…"

Alejandro pouted, and then turned to Kierra, who smiled but shook her head. "You two are big kids!" she said. She looked onto Georgiana, who had decided to follow her brother's example and began to pout. Kierra looked at Remus, raising her eyebrows at him. "Well?" She asked.

"Why don't we all just go in the living room…Kierra and I will stay with you two. How does that sound?" Remus said, turning to the kids. Alejandro's face lifted slightly, and Georgiana's broke into a full smile as she dashed ahead of the rest to claim a spot on the futon.

"This is going to be fun…" Kierra muttered as she followed Remus into the living room.

"We'll just stay until they fall asleep…" Remus muttered quietly to her so they couldn't be overheard. Kierra smiled slightly.

"Good plan…"

* * *

Kierra groaned slightly as she tried to turn over. But something was keeping her from doing so—there seemed to be a weight sitting on top of her rear. She opened her eyes, but shut them immediately at the sudden pour of sunshine. Very groggily, Kierra propped herself up on her elbows and slowly opened her eyes to glance over her shoulder, only to find Remus using her butt as a pillow. She frowned as she took in her surroundings. Georgianna was laying next to her, balled up in her usual way, while Alejandro had cuddled up behind Remus; only he was laying upside-down, so his feet were tangled in Remus's hair. Kierra knew they all looked a sorry sight right now, but the thought didn't bother her. She was too tired. Kierra fell back onto her stomach and wriggled her butt slightly, in order to get Remus to slide down to her hamstrings, but to no avail. He seemed quite attached to his current position, the bugger. Well, just one more story she could embarrass him with…

Half an hour later, Kierra gently pushed Remus aside and rolled out of bed, careful not to disturb the other occupants. It was nearly 10:30 a.m., and she expected that Elinor and Jacques would be back soon. As she made her coffee, she couldn't help feel proud of herself. Not only had she gotten up before Remus, but she was positive that he had fallen asleep before her. Well, it was a bit hard to tell…They had been laying on the futon for over an hour, trying to coax the children to sleep, and eventually they had both drifted off before Alejandro or Georgiana could. But Kierra was sure she had seen Remus slump over a few minutes before she had drifted off…

"Well, that was about the worst night's sleep I've ever had…"

Kierra nearly jumped. She turned around to see Remus stumble into the kitchen, rubbing the back of his neck. "That bad?" she asked with a grin.

Remus nodded, looking at her with a mix of confusion and tire. "Yeah…felt like I've been sleeping on"—

"Someone's bum?"

"Sorry?" Remus nearly choked.

Kierra laughed as she sat down to enjoy her coffee. "Mine."

"Oh! I actually…I did?" Remus asked, turning a light shade of pink. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to"—

Kierra waved a hand dismissively at him, satisfied at his embarrassment. "It's alright. Your face just now made it all worth it."

Remus scowled at her as a knock came from the door. He hastened to answer it, pausing briefly halfway to the door to run his fingers through his messy hair in attempts to straighten in out.

"Bonjour Remus!" Elinor said brightly when he opened the door. She was standing with Jacques, who looked quite tired out.

"Bonjour"—Remus swiftly kissed Elinor twice on each cheek, keeping with custom of the area—"how was Paris?"

"More like how was Roeun," Jacques said with a tired smile as he shook Remus's hand. "Roxanne took us to her lodge there, an' ve spent the entire weekend at her lodge, boating and fishing with her…"

Remus smiled. "That sounds like fun…"

"You can think that if you'd like…"

"Jacques! Elinor! Bonjour"—Kierra had appeared at Remus's side and greeted them—"you guys smell like fish!"

Elinior and Jacques laughed. "Long weekend ve 'ad at Roxanne's…" Elinor replied. "But it was worth it, hearing her rant about what an idiot Minister Cornelius Fudge was…she seemed very convinced that you-know-who has returned! We promised to see her again in the next few weeks"—

"But zis time we invited her to see us," Jacques finished. "No way we are going to ever spend a weekend fishing again…we told her she should meet our children. How were they, by ze way?" he asked, glancing over to the futon bed where Alejandro and Georgiana were still sleeping.

"No problem at all," Kierra said with a grin. "They're a bit tired out though from last night. There was a nasty storm, and I think it frightened them."

"Ah yes, zey tend to get in a right state when zere is a storm!" Elinor said as she and her husband picked up their sleeping children from the bed and headed back to the door.

"Why don't you guys stay for a bit? Have some lunch!" Kierra said, following them to the door.

Jacques shook his head and smiled. "Thank you…but we ought to get home…get ze smell of fish off us, and perhaps catch up on our sleep."

"Thank you so much for watching zem for us, though…" Elinor said, reaching into her purse and retrieving a small bag, suede bag and offering it to Kierra, who shook her head. "I insist! Don't pretend those two were little angels, Kierra. I know zey can be little terrors!"

Kierra laughed. "It was fun all the same."

"At least let us take you two out for dinner then tomorrow," said Elinor, "we 'ave so much to tell you about our meeting with Roxanne. We 'ave a lot of ideas on 'ow we can get further inside ze ministry…of course, we will write to Dumbly-dorr first…"

"Of course…" said Remus with a smile. "Sounds good."

"Well, until tomorrow then." Jacques said, and nodding his head to Remus and Kierra, he and his family took their leave.

Kierra sighed as she shut the door. "Well, that was one fun-filled weekend…"

Remus smiled as he poured himself some coffee, but then made a face as he drank it. "This stuff is disgusting."

"Blame the States," replied Kierra, "they got me addicted to it…it's strong though, that's what I love about it."

"This is true." Remus said as he took another sip. "Is this what keeps you going through the day? Coffee?"

Kierra smiled. "To be honest with you, yeah. In fact, yesterday—oh this is terrible—but yesterday, I had about six cups"—

"Six cups?"

"Those kids were really energetic! It's hard keeping up with them!"

"That can't be safe…"

Kierra shrugged. "It's just coffee. I'm not shooting up drugs or anything."

"Well, that explains a lot. I had trouble comprehending how you could be so cheery all day. I got pretty tired out myself."

"Understandable, the way Alejandro was clinging to you like a monkey all weekend." Kierra said with a grin.

Remus smiled. "I liked him. If I were to ever have kids, I'd want someone like him. He's very affectionate…" He frowned at Kierra when she giggled. "What?"

"You're so cute…"

Remus blushed. "Er…"

"You want to have kids!"

Remus felt his face go warm. "So? Don't you?"

"Well, yeah…but you seem to want it more…" And after a few moments, she added, "I think you'd be a good father…how come you never adopted?"

Remus shrugged. "I could never afford it. And there would've been no way to do it in Britain anyway…I'm on the werewolf registry, and adoption agencies would never even consider…well, someone like me."

"But what about now?" Kierra asked. "I mean, I know you're busy with work, and the order…but no one here knows about your condition…well, Edmund…but he's been sworn into secrecy."

"I know…but I don't want to risk anything. It's really important that we get the job done here for Dumbledore. Anyway, I wouldn't want any children without a mother around to help…All children should have both a mother and a father."

"Jacques was a single father for some years…"

"Sorry?" But then Remus remembered that Kierra had told him months ago that Elinor had only recently been married. So how did they have a three year old and a five year old?

"Well, yeah…he was widowed. Wife was really adventurous…got killed while she was off climbing a mountain…and then he met Elinor a few years back, and they married…"

"Was it hard for Elinor? I mean, getting married and already having two kids to take care of?" asked Remus, having a hard time imagining someone young and elegant like Elinor marrying a man with children.

"I think it was in the beginning, but she got into it, and she loves them to pieces…but yeah, while Jacques was single, he managed his children just fine! I'm sure you would too."

"Well, that was a bit different though…I mean, he had no choice but to raise them as a single father…he had to get through it and it's great that he's done a job of it…but I mean, if you _can _get married and have a spouse…then you should do that before having a kid…"

"Or if an unmarried woman gets pregnant and has to raise a child on her own…" Kierra added.

Remus frowned. "I don't know…I think she should marry the guy who got her pregnant…"

"Why?"

"Well, why not?"

"The guy can still help take care of a baby without marrying…"

"But by not marrying, he's not obligated. Marriage is a binding contract"—

"You're reducing marriage to some legal, business sort of institution…"

"Well, that's what it is, isn't it?"

"Where's the love in that?"

"The love is there. I mean, it doesn't have to be there. People who marry don't have to love each other. I mean, they should…it definitely helps to make the marriage work…but love is not a prerequisite for marriage." Explained Remus.

"I can't believe you're saying"—

"Wait let me finish…So if you strip marriage down to its basic components, it's two people signing a contract that they agree to fulfill their obligations to one another. If they aren't fulfilled, the law can be brought in. It's the safest thing for a woman to do if she gets into the situation you're talking about."

"Even if the woman doesn't love the guy?"

"If she didn't love him, why'd she let him into her pants in the first place?"

"So you should be ready to marry a person if you're going to sleep with them?" Kierra asked, cocking an eyebrow at Remus.

"Essentially, yes."

Kierra smirked. "Ok, so by your logic, in one point of your life, you were ready to marry me? I mean, if you had gotten me pregnant when we were at school…you would've married me?"

Remus paused, and Kierra stared at him intently, ready to shout "ha!" triumphantly when he couldn't answer. Instead, to Kierra's surprise, he nodded. "If that had happened…yeah, I think I would've. I mean, if you had agreed to also…" he added quickly.

"You would've married me?" she repeated, looking at him uncertainly. "That young?"

"Sirius and Dominique did…"

"Yes, but Sirius and Dominique…they're impulsive, irrational little nutters."

"But they did it. And they were happy…"

"For about two years…and then Dominique wanted a divorce…"

"But they worked it out in the end." Remus said testily, wondering why Kierra was pointing at their marital troubles. "Anyway, all couples have their ups and downs. Theirs got particularly bad simply because of the kind of people they are. They're both independent on the outside, but deep down, they're very dependent on the care and attention of others."

Kierra sighed. She glanced briefly at Remus, knowing he was annoyed at her for pointing out Dominique and Sirius's past marital problems. "Right…I don't know how we got off talking about Dominque and Sirius's marriage…I thought we were talking about you and children…"

Remus shrugged. "A subject we'll never be able to agree on. To each his own then…"

Later that afternoon, as Kierra sat down at her desk to grade papers, her mind kept wandering back to 1979, when she and Remus had been a couple…What if he _had _gotten her pregnant? Would he have moved with her to the States and then to France? Would he have really married her? Would they still be married today? Kierra frowned as she thought of the future that could've happened to her. Married to Remus…Married to Remus for sixteen years… Kierra laughed out loud at the thought of having a teenage kid with Remus. And without allowing herself further thoughts on the subject, she continued to grade her papers.

_A/N: _

_1 lyrics were from "Shout" by The Beatles_

_2 "favorite things" from "Sound of Music" sung by Julie Andrews ;) _


	51. Chapter 52: Spilling Old Beans

_A/N: I've got to admit: this is one of those 98 percent dialogue chapters…but I promise it shan't be too boring! ; )_

Chapter 53: Spilling Old Beans

"Kierra?"

"Mmm?"

"You should really close your legs…"

"Oh"—Kierra crossed her legs over and smoothed out her pleated skirt over her thighs. She sighed tiredly as she slouched back in her seat in the staff lounge—"thanks Remus"—and as she turned back to her magazine, she muttered—"prude."

"I am not a prude," Remus protested, "I'm just saying…I mean, sit however you please, but don't get mad then if someone looks up your skirt…"

Kierra scowled at him. "No one is that pervy"—

"You'd be surprised."

Kierra and Remus turned around to see Elinor standing at the entrance of the lounge, smiling wryly.

"Yeah?" Kierra asked as Elinor made her way across the room to fetch one of the staff-use only owls. "What guys have been looking up your skirt?"

Elinor rolled her eyes. "I think a more fitting question to ask is what guys _don't_ look up a girl's skirt, given ze chance…"

"Lupin wouldn't." Kierra replied, grinning at Remus. "He'd close his eyes and start shouting at you for wearing such a short skirt."

"I didn't _shout_ at you…I just told you politely to keep your legs closed."

"But you've shouted at me before," Kierra continued, "several times in fact…for supposedly dressing inappropriately." And turning to Elinor, she added "I call him Captain Prude at home."

"You call me Captain Prude everywhere…" Remus corrected her.

Elinor laughed. "Remus, you are one in a million. Oh, that reminds me, ze kids loved you…especially Alejandro. 'e told me you could turn into a horse! I did not know you were an animagus!"

Remus laughed. "If being one means getting on all fours and crawling around the living room with someone on your back, then sure…"

Elinor frowned, not understanding at first. As comprehension dawned on her though, she merely smiled and then turned to Kierra. "And Georgiana told me you two had a talk on werewolves."

"Oh"—Kierra gave Remus a fleeting look before smiling at Elinor—"right, I did. She was afraid during the storm, and we had read one of her books the night before"—

"No, I know zat." Elinor cut in. "And I'm glad you comforted her…But zat other stuff you said about them…who do you know is a werewolf?"

"Oh—Kierra blinked, feeling tension grow in the room as she felt Remus grow extremely still—"no one…just some guy at Hogwarts…"

"They let a werewolf into zat school?" Elinor asked incredulously. "Is Dumbledore crazy?"

"Well"—

"Better yet, are you crazy, Kierra?"

"Me?" Kierra raised an eyebrow at Elinor.

"You dated him, didn't you? Georgiana said he was a good kisser."

Kierra blushed furiously, wishing Elinor hadn't brought that up. Or at least not in front of Remus. God, he was going to make fun of her about this... "So? I didn't know he was one! I mean, I found out later on…"

"So you dumped him when you found out?" asked Elinor.

"Of course not!" Kierra replied. She was about to add that she dated him until she had to move to the states, but immediately remembered that she had told Elinor earlier on about her relationship to Remus, and saying anything would incriminate him.

Elinor frowned, and then turned to Remus. "Did you know about zis bloke?" she asked.

"Er—I didn't even know there were werewolves at Hogwarts." He said slowly, reasoning that he wasn't completely lying. He only knew of one werewolf that attended Hogwarts—himself. So to say he didn't know about werewolves, in plural…surely that wasn't a lie…

"What's the big deal anyway?" Kierra asked Elinor. "He never hurt me. He was a good guy."

"But 'e could've!" Elinor retorted. "What if 'e 'ad lured you out in ze night and bitten you? Turn you into a werewolf with 'im!"

"Don't be ridiculous…he never would've done that." Kierra replied. "I told you, he was a good guy…"

Elinor stared at her for a moment, open mouthed. Finally she regained her composure and asked quietly, "so…you _weren't _bullshitting when you told Georgiana that they are people…that they live normal lives? You meant all zat?"

Kierra's eyes widened in disbelief. She loved Elinor, but sometimes she could be such an idiot… "Of course I meant it! What's there that says they aren't people? That they aren't normal? Elinor, I _knew_ one…I knew him well. And he wasn't an animal…well, except when"—Kierra paused and smiled coyly, causing Elinor's eyes to bulge out and Remus to blush furiously—"anyway, he was a person…one of the best persons I've ever known."

"I do not believe you…" Elinor muttered as she opened a window in the lounge for the owl to fly out. "Getting so intimate with a werewolf. I know you can be reckless sometimes, Kierra…but really…zis is too much." Kierra rolled her eyes in return. "Surely you do not approve, Remus…"

Remus shrugged. "I have to admit, I'm with Kierra on this."

Elinor raised her eyebrows at him. "You too? I thought you were ze sensible one…"

Kierra sighed exasperatedly. "Elinor, come off it. Werewolves aren't bad people."

"Well of course zey are not…zey are not even people!" Elinor retorted. "Besides, didn't you know zat you-know-who had werewolves fighting on his side? They are dark creatures, Kierra"—

"Shut up."

Elinor's eyes widened again, as did Remus's. "Sorry?"

"I said, shut up. You don't know, Elinor. You've never met one in your life. Your knowledge of them extends as far as what you've read in the papers, and you know yourself that papers skew things all the time…So how the hell are you going to lecture me about them being dangerous?"

Remus sat silently in his chair as Elinor and Kierra continued to argue. He wished he could say something more than just "yeah" and "I agree with Kierra." Part of him wanted to just tell Elinor that he was a werewolf, to see her reaction, but he knew that would be unwise. God, he was pathetic. He couldn't even stand up for himself…

Elinor had finally left the lounge, rolling her eyes before shutting the door behind her. Remus watched Kierra stare at the door, and then shift her gaze to Remus, where their stares met.

"Sorry…" she said quietly. "She's a good person, for the most part. But she's got her prejudices…"

Remus sighed. "Yeah, I know." He looked up at Kierra, who had gotten up to go pour herself some coffee. He noticed her hands were shaking slightly as she poured the coffee into her mug. "Er…thank you." He said quietly. Kierra looked up at him and smiled. At least he wasn't bringing up the kissing business…

"Er…can I ask you something?" He asked uncertainly as Kierra sat back down next to him.

"Shoot."

"So…you really thought I was a good kisser?"

* * *

A few weeks later, about a week before Christmas Eve, Remus found himself curled up in his bed, under the warmth of three comforters, and adjusting an everlasting hot pack under his back. Just then, Kierra burst into his room with a tray of food in her arms.

"Dinner!" she said cheerily. Remus simply groaned in reply and sank deeper under the covers. No way was he going to eat. Every muscle in his body was aching. The full moon had come and gone, leaving Remus feeling tired and weak, but above all, in seemingly endless pain. Of course, there had been a few consolations though in his situation. He felt very much relieved that it was the end of term, and he didn't have to worry about lessons. He also had Kierra at home to take care of him ("Don't be silly, you can't feed yourself! You're too ill!" Kierra snapped as she spoon-fed him a bowl of chicken soup), and finally, he was due to Sirius's that evening, and would definitely be back to health in time for Christmas. Which reminded him…

"Kierra"—Remus frowned and turned away in protest as Kierra tried to feed him a large chunk of chicken—"Wait, listen…I have to be at the headquarters in a few hours"—

"I'll let Sirius know you're not well and you'll come tomorrow"—

"But today's a big meeting, I can't miss it…"

"Fine. But if you pass out…hey what are you doing?" Kierra demanded when she saw Remus slowly pulling his covers off himself, looking like it quite pained him to do so.

"Well," he said wearily, "I need to pack still…"

Kierra pushed him back down into bed and covered him again with his blankets. "No…you need all the rest you can get. I'll pack for you."

"But"—

"Just tell me what you need." And with that Kierra got up and went to his closet. "So you need clothes for two weeks"—she opened the closet door and made a face—"Well, I certainly know what to get you for Christmas now…it's like you had one too many turns with the time turner or something…"

"I don't care much for clothes…"

"Clearly…" Kierra muttered as she dragged out Remus's empty trunk from the closet and popped it open. "Alright…these robes look pretty decent…" she said, pulling out two gray casual robes from the closet and folded them into the trunk. "These pants will work too…"

"Kierra, you don't need to pack much, actually. I have some of my clothes there too, you know…" said Remus hoarsely.

"Oh, alright. What do you need then?"

"I think a few pairs of socks…"

"Right-o…" and Kierra marched to the other side of the room where Remus's dresser was, and popped open the first drawer. As she dug through the drawer and began to pair socks up, Remus spotted _La Prophétie du Jour_, a French newspaper equivalent to _The Daily Prophet_, sitting on his desk.

"Er, Kierra? Can you pass me the paper?" he asked.

"Oh…" Kierra made a face of disgust, but then handed the paper to him before turning back to his socks. "Bunch of rubbish."

"They're better then _The Daily Prophet_…" Remus reminded her.

"Oh, I don't know about that…" she said as she shot a pair of Remus's socks into the trunk. "Found a nasty little piece on werewolves today, while you were sleeping."

"Really?" Remus asked, turning the page of the paper and scanning the article headings.

"Yeah…apparently they want to reevaluate some of the amendments considering half-breeds, with a particular concern of werewolves."

"Anything particular to spark that sudden interest?"

"Well, you know…last year…before you moved here, a girl was murdered by a werewolf. Bites all over her body. They never found the guy one who did it though. The few suspects they found had gotten family members to testify to their alibis for their whereabouts on that full moon. Anyway, France has always been pretty anti halfbreed. Course, not as bad as Britain, until this whole episode. So they slip in articles about werewolves from time to time…"

"How old was the girl?" Remus asked.

"She had her seventeenth birthday that night. Kind of why she was bitten. I mean, she was out partying with her friends all night…and she was so drunk by the time she left that she apparated a mile or so from her house…and well…on the way, she met it." Kierra said, tossing another pair of socks into Remus's trunk.

Remus sighed as he attempted to eat his soup on his own. "Sometimes I wonder if the ministry is in the right, taking all the precautions that they do"—

"How can you say that?" Kierra snapped, her head shooting up to glare at Remus. "Of course they're not right! Just because one person…"

"But this happens all the time, Kierra"—

"No it doesn't" she cut in. "I was doing some research while you were asleep. That article had really ticked me off…plus what Elinor had said a few weeks ago…so I did some research, because I wanted to write back to these people…and you know what I found out? Of all the murders and attacks that occur in the wizarding world, only 5 come from werewolves! And those were all during full moons…never when the person was in their human form. That just shows that werewolves are only dangerous during the full moon, not during the rest of the month! They're normally sane, rational people! And 8 were from vampires…another 5 from other sources…82 were from normal wizards and witches who didn't have any abnormal condition…" She snorted. "Anyone who consciously tries to kill you is by default a bit abnormal."

Remus simply stared at her in awe as she shut his sock drawer and began to rummage through his underwear drawer, marveling at Kierra's sudden zeal for werewolf welfare. _He_ was the one suffering from lycanthropy…

"Forget the clothes…I'm buying you some brighter looking underwear!" Kierra exclaimed after a few moments. "How do you feel about thongs?"

* * *

"Who's the cutest baby in the world?" Kierra squealed as she bounced a blonde haired baby on her lap. Jackie gurgled, but as she looked up to see her mother enter the living room, she began to cry, stretching her arms up in the air. "Damnit, Janine…why'd you have to come in?" Kierrra grumbled as she handed Jackie back to her mother.

"I'm sorry…I thought you wanted me to bring you tea!" Janin said with a smile as she balanced her daughter on her hip and handed Kierra a cup and saucer.

"By the way, where's Nora? She got back today, didn't she?" Kierra asked, glancing above towards the stairs, half expecting to see her niece appear with a grin on her face.

"In the shower. She looked so tired and burned out this afternoon when we picked her up from the station. I think they're slowly killing them over there at Hogwarts."

Kierra nodded sympathetically. "Fourth year…" she muttered. 'OWL preparations begin. How's that lovely Umbridge woman? Remus told me she's become high inquisitor or something…"

Janine made a face. "I think she's the one wearing down all the students. She's a foul woman…"

"She was senior undersecretary to Fudge, wasn't she?" Kierra asked as she took a sip of tea, vaguely remembering Remus ranting about her one evening when he saw her name in the paper.

"Yep—still is. And she's not any more competent there either. Shame she has so much power…the amount of legislation she manages to pass…especially against halfbreeds." Janine added, her brows furrowing slightly.

"What was that about?" Kierra asked, frowning.

"Oh—didn't you know? She wrote up some laws on employment"—

"Not the legislation—that look you just gave me! What was that about?" Kierra asked again.

"Oh—well—nothing! Just that...well, you know, you're friends with Professor Lupin…"

"So?"

Janine shrugged. "I don't know…never mind. I just thought you were fond of him…" Silence followed this, and after a few moments, Janine spoke up again. "So…er, how's the apartment hunt going?"

Kierra frowned. "I'm not looking for a new flat…why should I be?"

"Well…I thought living with Lupin was temporary…I mean, it _is_ his place, isn't it?" asked Janine.

"My place too now." Kierra replied. "I pay rent."

"But"—

"I don't mind his lycanthropy, you know." Kierra cut in.

"I was actually about to object to his maleness rather than his lycanthropy…but thanks—nice to know you think I'm a bigot…" Janine said with a note of coolness in her voice.

"Well, you had a problem with him before, when he was teaching Nora"—

"Someone say my name?"

Kierra, Janine and Jackie looked up to see Nora galloping down the stairs, grinning from ear to ear.

"Nora!"

Kierra's face brightened immediately and she stood up to greet her niece with a hug.

"How are you? Gosh, you just keep on growing taller and taller! And more beautiful! Have the boys been chasing you around?"

"Kierra…" Janine sighed wearily as she rolled her eyes, "I swear, you're going to give my daughter such a big head…"

"Nonsense." Kierra laughed. "You know, when I was at Hogwarts, I had this great friend, Alice…and you look just like her."

Nora smiled. "So…what were you guys saying about me?"

"Oh—well—we were just talking about my living arrangements with _Professor Lupin…" _Kierra said, dropping her voice to something soft and sultry as she said Remus's name, all while she batted her lashes at Nora. "Tell me. Are you wildly jealous of me Nora? I mean, I get to see that man _every_ day…God. The way he grades those papers…sometimes it gets me really"—

"I'm never going to hear the end of it, am I?" Nora groaned.

"Not until you admit you had a lil' somethin' of a crush on your dear professor!"

Nora frowned. "You don't talk about me to him, do you?"

Kierra laughed. "All the time…but don't worry, I haven't exposed you totally. I've just shared a few amusing childhood stories…nothing of your little fancy for him."

"Will you ever believe me when I say that I never liked"—

"Never."

Nora glared at her. Janine rolled her eyes, trying to hide her amusement with a look of exasperation. "Alright. Poor Lupin doesn't even know how much he's talked about in this house. Let's just have dinner. Harvey's running late"—

"Just for the record, I didn't bring him up." Nora said declaratively.

"Yeah, I noticed dear." Janine said as she held the door to the kitchen open for Kierra. "Seems it's always Kierra. Makes me wonder if there's someone else in this house who's sporting a crush on Mr. Lupin…"

Nora's eyes practically danced out her sockets at her mother's comments. "Hey don't you dare, I've got a baby in my arms!" Janine laughed, backing away as Kierra waved a threatening hand at her. "Ooh…look who's gone all pink!"

Kierra glared at her, and then turned to Nora, who had pursed her lips tightly to keep from giggling. "Hate to disappoint you ladies, but I don't have a crush on him. He's my friend. And anyway, It's only been a few months since I left _Edmund_. I'm nowhere near setting attachments on anyone else right now". Kierra said stiffly.

And that had shut Nora and Janine up. She knew she was slightly pathetic for playing the Edmund card, as she usually did when she wanted to get out of an unpleasant situation. But when she did, she usually meant it on some level. Only now, she wasn't sure if she had…

The subject of Professor Lupin and males in general remained untouched for the rest of the evening. Kierra had finally decided that it was time to lay off on Nora, and Nora and Janine seemed to think Kierra's love life was probably too sensitive of a topic to discuss. As Nora and Kierra sat on the floor of the living room engaging in a game of gobstones, Janine sat on one of the sofas, nursing Jackie. It was shortly after Jackie had let out a particularly large belch that Kierra thought to ask about a man whom she was sure would not be an issue to discuss.

"So—where's Harvey gotten off to?" she asked, glancing from Nora to Janine.

"Well…he flooed over an hour before you came, and told me…stuck at St. Mungo's, obviously. A man came in towards the end of his shift with this horrible snake bite. Someone from the ministry, I believe. Arthur Weasley."

"Weasley?" Kierra asked, her eyes widening slightly.

"Yeah…you remember me telling you about my friend Ginny…with all the brothers? That's her dad!" Nora said, a worried look falling upon her face.

"Is he going to be alright? Where was he when he got the bite?" asked Kierra, though she had a feeling she knew where.

Janine shrugged. "No idea. Harvey didn't say…he was in a hurry. But judging by the fact that Harvey's still there, I imagine he's still living. Oh, don't fret, dear." She said, leaning over to rub Nora's shoulder reassuringly when she saw the disheartened look on her daughter's face become more pronounced. "I'm sure he'll be alright." She glanced up at Kierra expectantly.

"Right. Absolutely!" Kierra said, probably more heartily than she should have. After about ten minutes, Kierra purposely lost and began to help Nora put away the gobstones set. Nora then offered to take pictures of the family with the camera she had gotten as a recent birthday gift, but Kierra opted out.

"I just remembered," she said slowly, "I…I have some of Lupin's papers. They're his lesson plans, actually. I should send them to him."

"Oh—but Herby's out hunting right now." Nora said with a frown.

"It's alright…I can go to the owlery…it's just a couple of blocks south from here, isn't it?" Kierra asked, getting up to retrieve her cloak.

"Yeah…but I don't know if it's open right now." Janine said uncertainly. "I mean, I don't know, I've never tried sending things from there at this time. Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"It should be open, and no I don't think so. I should probably send them before he realizes I accidentally took them. He gets annoyed sometimes with me…I do this sort of stuff all the time…" Kierra said with a laugh. "Anyway, I'll be back really quick!" And popping open her briefcase to take whatever was sitting at the very top of it, Kierra disapparated with a pop.

* * *

21 December, 1995

_Dear Remus, Sirius, and Dominique if you're there,_

_My sister-in-law just told me about Arthur Weasley. I'm assuming you know by now—news reaches you guys fairly quick. By a snake? Janine didn't know where it happened. Harvey (my brother, who was at the hospital when Arthur came in) didn't say. Am I right to think that it happened in the Department…? Is he going to be alright? Janine reckons he'll live, as Harvey's shift ended hours ago, but he's still there, tending to him. Please keep me posted. Address to "guest bedroom". Harvey and Janine know a bit about the order, but I don't think they should know about this situation since they're not in it with us. Plus Nora seems a bit unhappy right now—she's good friends with Ginny Weasley._

_On another note, since I'm in London, I want to come to the headquarters. I can come on the 8th, when Nora leaves for Hogwarts. Janine thinks I've got to head back to school too, but I haven't bothered to correct that misunderstanding. We don't have to be back until the 13th, so that'll give me a few days to spend with the order, that is, Sirius, if you don't mind hosting me. Don't feel obligated though—I know some fantastic hotels nearby that I could stay at. Hope all is well and that Arthur recovers. My love to Dominique if she's not there._

_Love,_

_K. Nakofsky_

_

* * *

_

_23 December, 1995_

_Kierra—_

_Arthur is fine. He just got released from St. Mungo's today, and he and his family will be spending Christmas with us. We'll talk about details of the attack later on, in person._

_Don't even thinking about staying at a hotel. None of your "fantastic" hotels, as you say, could possibly compare to the splendors of my house. I'm being very sarcastic, I hope you know. But all the same. Dominique, Remus and I will be expecting you at my house on the 8th. Dominique is unfortunately not with us right now, and is spending her Christmas in Paris…performing some stuff…something about nutcrackers… Anyway, she'll be back in time to see you though. I've written to her to tell her you're coming to visit—I imagine that'll greatly excite her. We'll see you in a couple of weeks then._

_Sirius_

_

* * *

_

Just like during her last visit to 12 Grimmauld Place, Kierra had been greeted by much commotion. Dominique had answered the door and immediately pulled her in for a tight hug, pulling her inside the house as she did so.

"Oh! Kierra! It's so good to see you"—

"FILTHY SCUM OF THIS EARTH! BEGONE FROM THIS PLACE!"

Kierra had jumped, but as she heard Sirius clamoring down the hall where the woman's shrieking came from, she immediately remembered Mrs. Black's portrait.

"Oh dear…one second!" Dominique said quickly, leaving Kierra at the entrance. A few moments later, the screeching had died down, and Dominique reappeared, along with Remus and Sirius at her side. They were all wearing dark red sweaters with the letters of their first names on them: A large 'D' on Dominique's, an 'S' on Sirius's, and an 'R' on Remus's. Kierra smiled slightly. They looked a bit silly, standing together, spelling out "DRS". Not that it spelled anything. Which made them look even sillier. It was as if they were missing a few people from their line. Perhaps someone with an 'E' and another 'S' to spell 'dress'…

"Like the sweaters?" Sirius asked, grinning, when he noticed Kierra's amused expression. "Molly Weasley knit them for us!"

Kierra cocked an eyebrow at him and then looked at Remus. "I thought you said Molly and Sirius didn't like each other."

Sirius glared at Remus but continued to Kierra, "Well…we've er…improved on each other since the whole business with her husband. Her family stayed over for the holidays so they could be near St. Mungo's…so I guess she was thankful for that. Knit me a little something as a thank you gift."

"So how is Mr. Weasley?" Kierra asked as they led her into the kitchen, where dinner was cooking. "I know in your letter you said he was going to be alright…but…well, what happened?"

Sirius glanced at Remus and sighed. "Perhaps we should start at the beginning then?" Remus nodded. "Alright. From the beginning then. You've been filled in on this whole business with Harry, how he can read into Voldemort's mind?"

Kierra nodded. "He kept seeing himself in the department of mysteries, right? That's what Remus told me." Kierra said.

"Right," Sirius said, glancing fleetingly at Remus before continuing. "so one night he was there again, of course this was all through Voldemort's eyes, but Harry didn't know at the time. Anyway, Arthur was on guard duty the night it happened, and Voldemort attacked him. Of course, he couldn't make an appearance there himself, so he possessed his snake"—

"So Harry"—

"…in essence, was the snake." Sirius finished. "Well, was in the mind of the snake anyway. Makes perfect sense. He told me himself that he felt like he was the snake, that he was the one who had bitten Arthur. He also told me that later on when he was in Dumbledore's office explaining everything to him, he felt the snake rising in him again, and he wanted to attack Dumbledore."

Kierra's mouth fell open. "He's not being possessed, is he?"

Sirius shook his head. "He thought he was. I wasn't quite sure what to make out of it when he told me, I just had a hunch. But I didn't want to tell him anything without consulting Dumbledore. Well, I wouldn't have minded telling him without"—

"But you're not allowed." Remus finished curtly. "Yes, you grudgingly kept your word to Dumbledore and didn't tell Harry. Go on."

Sirius glared at Remus but continued anyway. "I had a feeling that Harry had gone so far into Voldemort's mind, Voldemort must have caught on by now, and there was a chance that he could reverse the process and start invading Harry's mind. I mentioned this to Dumbledore, and he was suspecting the same thing. So now, Harry's got to start taking occlumency lessons…with none other than old Snape." Sirius finished, frowning as he thought of his former classmate forcing his way into Harry's mind, addling with his memories…

"Occlumency?" Kierra asked. "That's a defense against legilimency, right?"

Dominique nodded, a worrisome look overtaking her face. "It's extremely advanced too. And grueling, mentally. I hope he can handle it."

"Harry's handled a lot. And I know he's capable of advanced magic." Sirius said, patting Remus on the shoulder. "Lupin here taught him how to do the patronus charm when he was thirteen."

"He can conjure up a patronus?" Kierra asked, raising her eyebrows up at Remus.

Remus nodded. "A corporeal one at that. He has some serious talent. And I think he'd be well able to succeed in occlumency too. But I'm just worried about one thing. Snape's his professor."

"You don't really think Snape will try to hurt him, do you?" Dominique asked with a frown. "He's on our side…"

"So?" Sirius started, but Remus cut him off.

"Not so much that. It's just the relationship those two have. It's more or less the sort that Snape and James had. Except Harry doesn't go hexing Snape every chance he gets." He replied.

"He's not in a position to." Sirius said. "Snape's his damn professor. Bet he wouldn't hesitate with a few curses if he weren't…"

"True." Said Remus thoughtfully. "I just hope Snape can put his contempt aside and teach him properly, and Harry does so too, so he can learn properly."

"Fat chance." Kierra said glumly. "Snape's a stubborn old donkey. And James was too. And if Harry's anything like James, he probably won't swallow his hatred either."

"Dumbledore should have taught him." Dominique said suddenly, pounding her fist on the kitchen table. "If anyone's a master at occlumency, it's him…"

Sirius sighed. "He doesn't want to give Voldemort more incentive to break into his mind. After Harry, Dumbledore's the next person Voldemort would love to get rid of. You could've done it, Moony. You aren't too shabby at it. And even if you were, you could practice enough to get good at it again. You always are keen on mastering whatever it is you have to teach…"

Remus shook his head. "I'd love to, but teaching occlumency is something beyond me. I know occlumency well enough, but in order to teach it, you have to be a skilled legilimens as well, in order to invade the mind of your pupil. I never learned that stuff."

The foursome sighed dolefully. "Damn Snape and his damn calculating mind." Sirius muttered. "Well…how about some dinner?"

* * *

"Shame Tonks couldn't drop by…" Sirius said as he popped open another bottle of wine. "She's on guard duty tonight. Have some more, Remus. I insist"—Remus had shook his head and pulled his goblet away from Sirius, who was offering him more wine—"Come on!"—he laughed, leaning forward to pour into his goblet—"live a little! Anyway, she was going to come by when her shift was over, but Kingsley just had to remind her that she had a meeting early in the morning and wouldn't get enough sleep if she came over here. Thought we'd be up late into the night or something…woops."

Sirius had meant to sit back down, but missed his chair by a few inches and teetered over the side, catching his arms around Dominique's chair to keep from falling.

"So…Kingsley…is he the other auror in the order?"

"Yep…" replied Sirius.

"The cute black guy? With the nice voice?"

Dominique giggled into her drink, and ended up coughing fitfully. Sirius chuckled. "Already on the lookout for a new guy, eh?" he asked. "Sorry to tell you though, he's got a girlfriend."

"Oh."

"We'll send you word if they split up though." Sirius said with a grin. "Though I don't know…he's a bit young for you, isn't he? Only 25!"

Kierra scowled at him. "Thanks, Sirius."

"Anytime. Don't worry though. I'm sure some handsome prince in shining armor, or whatever it is that puts you on, will come along."

"I think it's a _knight_ in shining armor." Remus corrected him.

"Ah, thank you Sir Know-It-All." Sirius muttered, pouring himself some more wine. "I'm trying to think of something wittier to add to insult you, but I'm a bit pissed."

"Just a bit?" Remus asked, wincing as Sirius set down the wine bottle on the table with a hard thud.

"Well, it's your fault, Roony—er—Moony."

"How's it my fault?" Remus asked.

"Well, if you had drunk a bit more, there would've been less for me to drink."

Remus rolled his eyes, but laughed anyway with Kierra and Dominique at Sirius's warped logic.

"You _are _being a bit selfish, Remus." Dominique said, pouring more drink into his goblet and then into her own. "Kierra and I have certainly done our part to save Sirius from drinking himself into unconsciousness…"

"Silly me." Remus replied, taking a sip from his goblet. "What was I thinking?"

"God…I remember at my very first solo recital, I had gotten up to take a bow, and everyone started laughing at me. There were about a hundred people there…everyone's parents, except my own of course. And I didn't get why they were laughing until later on during refreshments, I went to the bathroom to fix my hair, and I saw in the mirror, my skirt had gotten tucked into my knickers!" said Dominique about an hour later. The four of them had finished dinner and were sprawled on the living room floor near the fire, recounting stories of their childhood. Remus found himself having difficulty recalling anecdotes that were as funny as the others. And any funny ones he had, had taken place at Hogwarts in the company of his fellow marauders, which most of the time Sirius thought to share before him.

"Hey—that happened to you too, remember Moony?" Sirius said. Kierra and Dominique turned and looked at him incredulously.

"When?" asked Dominique. "You've worn a skirt?"

Suddenly Kierra clamped her hand over her mouth and began to laugh. "I remember! First year! First day of school! You and Peter came into the Great Hall that evening dressed like girls! And you had your skirt tucked into your underwear…"

Dominique giggled. "I didn't know…"

"Thank you kindly for bringing back that memory…" he said, smiling at Sirius, who wiggled his eyebrows mischievously in response. "Peter and I got kidnapped by a bunch of 7th year Gryffindors, and they dressed us up. They told us they jinxed the clothes so that if we took them off, something terrible would happen to our bodies. We never found out what though...Professor Flitwick ended up working his magic to undo whatever they had done."

"He made a terrible girl." Sirius added. "Never seen one with such scrawny little chicken legs."

"I do _not_ have chicken legs!" Remus protested as the others laughed.

"I know you don't anymore, mate." Sirius said with a grin. "You grew out of them, thank God."

Remus scowled at him. "You don't exactly have Britain's sexiest legs yourself, Mr. Black."

Sirius laughed. "Not claiming to"—

"I think he has nice legs."

Dominique gaped at Kierra, Remus's eyes widened slightly in surprise, and Sirius's pale face colored.

"What?" Kierra asked, seeming to be completely surprised at their reactions. "He does! I always thought so—Oh, Dominique! Don't take it the wrong way"—she said quickly, turning to Dominique—"I mean…I don't think he's attractive or anything. I mean, I do…but…_I'm_ not attracted _to_ him. You know what I mean? I just think he's really good-looking. I mean, just the parts I've seen of him. I've always wanted to see his entire body though…you know, naked…"

Sirius turned to Remus with a slightly intimidated look on his face. "I feel uncomfortable, Moony."

Remus frowned as he watched Dominique's relaxed countenance slowly become infuriated. "I do too."

Kierra, who heard them, paused and looked at them uncertainly, and suddenly smiled as comprehension dawned on her. "Oh! I didn't mean"—she turned to Dominique again—"I don't fancy Sirius or anything. I just…I was thinking of him in artistic terms! That's what I do! I'm an artist—well, not by profession—but still. Like sometimes I just see people and they're just so beautiful in some weird way and I want to paint them, you know? That's how I was thinking of Sirius. I swear…purely in an artistic sense." She looked at Dominique with mixed uncertainty and fear of getting slapped. Dominique's face relaxed slightly.

"You had me scared there." Dominique said with a laugh. "Yes, I think I know what you mean…"

Sirius, who no longer looked put out by Kierra's comments, grinned. "So…I'm an artistic masterpiece, eh?"

Kierra rolled her eyes. "I never should've said anything."

Dominique laughed. "I completely forgot that you were so into art…"

"I'm never allowed to forget that fact." Remus said. "Our flat has seriously become an art studio."

Kierra scowled at him. "Has not. I always clean up after myself."

"I'm sorry. More like an art gallery then. The walls are covered with her paintings, and tables are covered with her sculptures and pieces of pottery."

"Well, your flat was pretty dull! I thought it could use some colors!" Kierra said, sounding slightly hurt.

"No, I like it!" Remus said hastily. "I do! I was just joking…"

Kierra rolled her eyes. "Sense of humor isn't very becoming of you, Remus. Anyway"—she turned her attention back to Sirius—"can I paint you?"

"Paint me?" Sirius repeated, looking uncertainly at Remus and then to Dominique.

"Yeah! And don't worry, I'll do a good job of it—I've painted lots of people. And I've done about three nudes…" she said with a hiccup as she flipped two fingers at them.

"Watch who you're flicking off…" Remus said as he pushed her hand out of his face. Kierra giggled and held up a third finger, though taking another look at her hand to make sure she had three up this time.

"You've done nudes?" Dominique asked, her eyebrows raised so high they disappeared under her bangs.

"Yeah…I did them all in an art class a few years ago, actually. But I've always wanted to do one that was my own subject—someone that I picked. It becomes more personal then, you know? I remember doing horrible on that one woman I had to draw…she was pretty, but just…not artistic…"

Sirius nearly choked on his drink laughing. "You had to paint a naked woman?"

Kierra rolled her eyes. "oh geez…second thoughts about painting you now. You'd be all up in a dither…"

Sirius's eyes widened. "You want to paint me…naked?"

Kierra took a sip of her drink and nodded. "Not now, of course…too bloody pissed to concentrate."

"You can't paint him _naked_!" Dominique exclaimed.

"Why not?" Kierra asked, looking as though the idea of not doing so was absurd.

"Just because!" Dominique sighed. "It's weird! Can't you paint someone else? Paint Remus! You've seen _him_ naked before…"

"Dominique!" Kierra and Remus exclaimed at once. Remus could feel himself go very warm in the face.

"D, come on!" Kierra protested.

"Er—don't I get a say in this?" Sirius asked.

"Fine"—Dominique looked sharply at Sirius—"Do you want her to paint you?"

"Well, I don't mind…"

"Ha!"

"Don't 'ha' me"—

"Fine, hold on!" and Kierra pulled herself up, throwing her hand on Remus's shoulder as she tried to balance herself. She disappeared down the hall and returned a minute later with a large notebook under her arm. As she sat back down, she placed the book in Dominique's lap. "My sketchbook." She said curtly. "Have a look."

Dominique opened it. The first page was marked 16 July 1994. In pencil, Kierra had drawn a man sitting under a tree, reading a book. "That's Pierre, isn't it?" Remus asked, who was looking over Dominique's shoulder. Kierra nodded, and Dominique continued to leaf through the book. There had been mostly drawings of landscapes and sketches of random strangers. There had been several drawings that Remus had recognized as the views from the window in Kierra's office. One featured a plain landscape and still lake, while others featured students milling about—flying on broomsticks, on the grounds taking walks, having picnics, and taking swims in the lake. There has been one sketch of Edmund dated back to July of this year, where he was lounging on a sofa, reading a book. No one said anything and Dominique continued turning the pages. She stopped at a drawing of Remus that was dated from a few weeks ago. He was lying on the futon in their living room with his eyes closed. There was a small child sitting on his legs, pulling one of Remus's socks off. The other one had been tossed onto the floor, next to a girl with long hair who sat cross-legged, holding what appeared to be dolls.

"Who are they?" Dominique asked, pointing at the children.

Kierra smiled fondly at the drawing. "Kids Remus and I were babysitting a few weekends ago."

"Ah—those are the ones that kept you from seeing me?" Sirius asked, observing the drawing. "They're cute."

"You drew me...and I didn't notice?" Remus asked.

Kierra shrugged. "You had dozed off for a bit. And Alejandro climbed on top of you just as I got started, so I asked him to sit still for a while so I could draw him too. Obviously he didn't do a good job of it—that's why his face is a bit sloppily done." She said, pointing to the little drawing of Alejandro.

"Wait, are these the kids whose mum made a big deal about werewolves?" Sirius asked suddenly, looking up at Remus, who nodded. Sirius shook his head at the picture. "Poor kids."

Kierra sighed. "If only they hadn't told their mum…kids are cute but I swear…they have such big mouths!"

Remus smiled wryly. "Kierra, you're the one who told Georgiana about knowing a werewolf. You didn't have to…"

Kierra scowled. "Well, I was trying to prove a point, that werewolves aren't bad!"

"But you didn't have to add those other…details."

"What details?" asked Sirius, looking from Remus to Kierra.

"Nothing." Kierra said at once, turning pink. She glared at Remus, who had bit down on his lip to keep from laughing. Sirius, having spotted this, persisted.

"Come on…what details? What are you two hiding? Remus, you want to say it…you know you do. You're just being a gentleman so Kierra can have her dignity! Come on—spill the beans!"

"I told the girl that the werewolf I knew was a good kisser…" Kierra muttered.

Dominique giggled but Sirius rolled his eyes. "That's it?" he asked.

Kierra looked almost indignant. "Course that's it! And relatively embarrassing"—

"Why is it embarrassing? You didn't want Remus to know he was a good kisser?" Sirius asked, cocking his eyebrow at Kierra, who blushed. Remus, who was also blushing now, took pity on Kierra and tried to change the subject.

"Anyway, the point is"—

"So what exactly makes him a good kisser?" Sirius cut in, smirking at Kierra, who now looked quite miserable.

"He has firm lips…" Dominique murmured as she poured herself some more wine.

The entire room seemed to go silent, save for the sound of Dominique sipping on her goblet, who didn't seem to think she had said anything strange. When she put her goblet down, she glanced around and finally seemed to notice everyone's eyes on her. She looked back at them uncertainly but then immediately clamped a hand over her mouth and gasped. She slowly shifted her glance to Sirius, who looked at her with mingled confusion and anger. She didn't have to turn around to look at Remus to know that he was probably looking down at his hands miserably.

"Firm lips…" Sirius repeated slowly, in a voice that seemed to ring about the entire room. He was looking down at his empty goblet that he clutched very firmly. "You've kissed each other?"

"Once"—Dominique started immediately, looking positively frightened—"just once. And it was me…it was all me, Sirius. Remus didn't…initiate it. It was the year you escaped Azkaban. Remus and I met up for lunch…and well, your escape upset me. It upset all of us. We all loved you and thought you had betrayed us…and well, I don't know…I felt confused…and lonely."

"So you snogged my friend?" Sirius demanded, and turning to Remus he added, "And you _let_ her?"

"It happened so fast!" Remus protested. "She just came at me when I leaned forward to grab a salt shaker. She thought I had leaned forward to kiss her"—

"So I kissed him back. At least I thought I was…" Dominique finished, her cheeks burning red.

"I can't believe this." Sirius muttered. He looked up again at Dominique. "Why would you kiss him? Why would you think he was trying to kiss you, apart from him leaning forward?"

Dominique shrugged as she bit down on her lip, trying to keep the tears that welled up in her eyes from falling. "I don't know! I needed comfort and he gave it to me! And…I don't know! I thought maybe he still liked me…"

"Still liked you?" Sirius repeated, immediately turning away from Dominique and turning his attention on Remus. "Want to explain this one?"

Remus took a deep breath. His sympathy for Dominique was wearing thin now. "Ok…well, I…um…I sort of liked Dominique during our 7th year, when she first came."

"7th year?" Kierra said shrilly. "But we were dating then!"

"It was before we went out…" he said wearily. Women were nothing but trouble, sometimes…

"But you never told me?" Kierra asked. "She was one of my best friends at the time!"

"I didn't think it was important…" Remus replied.

"That's fine if you didn't tell Kierra," Sirius said, ignoring Kierra's protests ("It is not fine!"), "but I was going out with Dominique from the beginning. So you liked her while I was dating her…that's why you were all weird about it! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh that would've made a great conversation…'Hello, Sirius. Guess what? I fancy your girlfriend!' I wonder how that would've gone…" Remus said dryly. "Why are all of you making a big deal out of this? It all happened in the past! A long time ago!"

"You kissing Dominique wasn't that long ago." Sirius said angrily. "And that only happened because you used to fancy her!"

"So this is all my fault? It wasn't even me who started the kiss!" Remus shouted as Sirius got up and stormed out of the living room.

"Well, you and Dominique can share the blame the way you share kisses!" Sirius shouted, disappearing down the hall. A few moments later, a door slammed shut.

Remus sighed, rubbing his temple wearily as he made his way down the hall. The portraits were all roaring with insults. He pulled out his wand and stunned all the portraits in turn, and upon finishing, returned to the living room, where he found Kierra and Dominique arguing.

"We were friends!" Kierra exclaimed. "You spent all your time egging me on, saying he'd like me and ask me out, and the whole time he was in love with you! And you didn't say anything!"

"I wasn't in love"—Remus started, but was immediately cut off by Dominique.

"What was I supposed to say?" shouted Dominique. "You were obsessed with him! I didn't want to hurt your feelings!"

"So you opted to lie to me instead? Give me false hopes"—

"What are you talking about? False hopes—you got him in the end, didn't you? Not to mention broke his heart and left! Then you come back after all these years, leeching off him"—

"I'm not _leeching_ off him! Just because I live with him"—

"Oh please! You didn't have any other friends in France? The moment you lost your fiancé you went running to Remus for shelter!"

"Quiet!"

Kierra and Dominique fell silent. Dominique glared at Kierra, who in turn glared at Remus as she darted past him and out of the living room. Remus sighed, staring at his feet. He knew Dominique was looking at him, with that sorry look in her eyes. He knew she hadn't meant to cause all this trouble, and yet two of his friends were angry at him for incidents that he could hardly have helped but let happen.

"I'm sorry, Remus."

Remus did not shift his gaze from his feet. "I know you are."

"You're angry at me…"

Remus sighed. "I'm going to sleep now." He said simply. He turned around and headed down the hall, leaving Dominique alone in the living room.

He knew he had been harsh by leaving Dominique there. She hadn't _meant_ any harm. But Sirius and Kierra were mad at them, all because Dominique couldn't keep her mouth shut.

_This is all Sirius's fault. _He thought as he climbed up the stairs to his bedroom. If he hadn't gotten everyone all drunk, none of these secrets would have been spilled…They were supposed to have a fun evening together. They were supposed to reminisce about the good days, laughing until their stomachs hurt and their eyes watered with tears. They were supposed to call it a night and go off to sleep happy. But here they were, each in separate parts of the house, all quite drunk to one extent or another, and all angry with each other…

_

* * *

_

_Remus sat up in bed. His eyes hurt and his head was spinning. The portrait of Sirius's great-aunt Lucille was thankfully asleep. The only light that cast in his room was from the half moon that glowed through the window out in the night sky. However, that suddenly changed when his door slowly creaked open and the dim lights in the hallway poured into his room. He could barely make out the figure standing at the doorway. A woman, judging by the hourglass-like silhouette and the ponytail hairstyle. _

_Kierra._

"_Hey" He muttered, sitting up straighter in bed as she let herself in, closing the door about halfway, to allow some light into the room. "everything alright?"_

"_Yeah…" she quietly replied, tip toeing over to Remus's bed and taking a seat on its edge, next to him. "I just…well, I fancied a chat with you."_

_She looked a bit odd. Paler than she usually appeared, perhaps…"Any particular subject you wanted to discuss at this hour?"_

"_Yeah, I thought that part was obvious though…" Kierra replied._

"_Sorry, it's not. Please enlighten me…"_

"_Us."_

"_Us?" Remus repeated, raising an eyebrow at her. "Are you still mad about everything between Dominique and me? Because it shouldn't matter—what's done is done. And we're not dating anymore anyway"—_

"_That's what I wanted to talk about." Kierra cut in._

"_Us not dating anymore?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Ok." Remus waited for her to say something, to explain herself, but nothing came from her lips. At least not at first. Kierra sighed and glanced around the darkened room, taking in her surroundings. _

_  
"Have you ever wondered what it'd be like if we never broke up?" she finally asked._

"_Er—why?" Remus asked, looking at her uncertainly. The truth was he had…a few times. He always pictured them married with cute children; they all would look like Kierra. They might have gotten a cat too for the kids to play with. Then one day they would all go off to Hogwarts and they'd be alone again…_

"_Well—I was thinking about it…after we all fought"—she leaned closer to him. He could feel her breath—"and just thinking of how things could have been…it made me miss you, a lot…"_

"_Yeah?" he asked hoarsely, daring to look into her eyes. Big mistake. She was staring right back at him, still leaning closer. His consciousness of everything around him melted away as he felt his eyes fall shut and Kierra's lips brushed against his._

"_Yeah…" she whispered into his ear, kicking her legs up onto the bed and pulling off his covers. She fell onto his lap, bucking her thighs against his hips. _

"_I want you…" she breathed as she unbuttoned his shirt and moved her lips down to his chest. "You have no idea how much I want you…"_

_Remus attempted to speak, but found that he couldn't. His voice seemed to get lost somewhere in the back of his throat. He breathed heavily, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might burst through his chest. Kierra's hands had slid down to his naval, around which the drawstrings of his pajamas were tied. Her fingers ran along the buttons that fastened below the drawstring, snapping each of them open with a swift movement. She then ran her hands up his bare chest, pushing off his shirt as they reached his shoulders. Digging her fingernails into his skin, she pulled herself closer to him and smiled. It looked almost wicked…_

_He finally dared to raise his hands from his sides and touch her. His hands went around her back, meeting the unwelcoming feel of fabric. As she leaned forward to kiss him again, he slid his hands down and around until he slipped past the barrier and felt her warm skin. He let his hands fall down to her hips, and pulled them forcibly against his own. He felt a rush of satisfaction as he did so, and he closed his eyes to enjoy the sensation. He felt Kierra's mouth on his neck, but her kiss wasn't nearly as passionate as the preceding ones. It was softer…but he didn't want it softer. Her kisses trailed down his neck, going lower and lower, but they felt progressively weaker, until he opened his eyes and found that Kierra had gone._

Remus sat up quickly in bed, breathing heavily. He was still under his covers. He glanced around the room. It was still night time, and he was the only one in his bed. He looked down at himself. His shirt was still on and buttoned, as were his pants, (though he now felt slightly uncomfortable in them for a number of reasons). How much of it had been a dream? Did he imagine the arguments amongst himself, Kierra, Dominique and Sirius too? No, he couldn't have…his head pounded in a way that it only did when he had had more drinks than he could handle. And he remembered the evening. The drinking had been real. Dominique slipping up had been real. And everyone going off to bed angry had been real. Kierra coming into his room in the middle of the night had not been. She was probably too angry at him to even come in his room right now, let alone fall onto his lap to grope him.

Remus rolled onto his stomach and propped himself up on his elbows to get a better view of the door. It was still closed, just as he had left it when he went to bed. He rolled back into his spot and closed his eyes as his head fell against the pillow, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep, hoping to relive the memory of Kierra pressing herself against him…


	52. Chapter 53: The Faded Star

A/N: Still determined to finish before July 16th!

Chapter 54: The Faded Star

It had taken quite a bit of effort for Remus to pull himself out of bed the next morning. _I swear, if Sirius ever pops open another bottle of wine, or anything alcoholic for that matter… _he thought grumpily as he got dressed. He needed a cold shower desperately, but judging by the sounds of the water running in the bathroom next door, someone had beat him to it. Remus decided to take it later and simply hoped that the horrible feelings he was having all over his body would melt away with some breakfast. He had woken up in the middle of the night, quite startled by his dream. Yet, as he bitterly admitted to himself, he had gone straight back to sleep in hopes of catching the dream again. And he had caught it. And it had continued. He had let it continue. And he had woken up in the morning, feeling absolutely nauseous and disgusted with himself. Kierra was his friend. _A friend that's probably still pissed at you no good reason_… he reminded himself as he descended the staircase. But all the same, he shouldn't have dreamt about her. He shouldn't have indulged himself with thinking about her further in that manner. She was not his to fantasize about.

And yet, some small voice in the back of his mind attempted to reassure him of his actions. It was just a dream. A harmless dream at that. He certainly wasn't hurting anyone by fantasizing about Kierra. And it was a silly dream, so far from reality. In the dream, Kierra had approached him in a way he had ever seen her do. She had acted with a seductive sort of confidence—something the real Kierra had scarcely been able to do when they were dating many years ago. The way she came at him, doing things she had never done when they dated…Surely, there was no harm in just thinking about it. It's not like he was going to act upon his dreams—

"Sirius!"

Remus had been so caught up in his thoughts that he had run right into him as he entered the kitchen.

"Sorry about that," he said quickly, forcing a smile at Sirius, who did not return it.

"No problem, wife-kisser." Sirius replied coolly. "Breakfast is on the table."

Remus looked over his shoulder as Sirius exited the kitchen and sighed. "Is there any point reminding you that you technically haven't been married to Dominique since 1981?" he called after him. He received no response. With another dismal sigh, Remus sat down to the breakfast Sirius had made, meditating briefly on the possibility of Sirius meddling with his breakfast before tucking in.

Before Remus could so much as digest his first bite of toast however, the kitchen door swung open again, and Dominique appeared, dragging—to Remus's great surprise—Sirius and Kierra behind her. The pair of them looked quite put out at being dragged in, and protested greatly about not being hungry, but Dominique would not have it. She simply glared at them and forced them into seats.

"Don't make me chain you down." She said, pulling out her wand.

Remus cocked an eyebrow at Dominique. "D"—

"I couldn't sleep all night" Dominique said, cutting Remus off.

Sirius folded his arms across his chest and rolled his eyes. "Wonder why…"

Dominique narrowed her eyes at him, tapping her wand against her side. "Yeah, you sound like you know. Why don't you tell me?"

"Well, I was thinking a guilty conscious maybe"—

"Guilty conscious?" Dominique echoed. Her hands were on her hips and she was looking at Sirius quite dangerously. He seemed to neither notice nor care. "What do I have to feel guilty about? Maybe last night I was, because I felt bad for getting everyone angry…but I haven't done anything wrong! We weren't married anymore when you got sent to Azkaban. We _still_ aren't married."

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh as he tilted back in his chair. "And you don't seem very keen on remarrying. You know it's only a matter of time before the ministry comes crawling back to Dumbledore and I'm declared innocent, and you haven't mentioned the prospects remarrying once."

"Well, I figured we'd deal with that when we crossed that bridge." Dominique replied curtly.

"Deal with it?" asked Sirius, cocking an eyebrow. "As if it were some sort of problem? No, I don't think so. If marriage to you is something that needs to be merely dealt with, then I don't see why we should waste your precious time on it."

"Alright, this is getting out of hand." Remus finally spoke up. "Sirius, you aren't even giving her a chance…you're just looking for things to argue about."

"I'm not _looking_"—

"Oh, shut up Sirius and listen to me for once!" Dominique said angrily. He glared at her but did not say anything. "Dealing with your loss was one of the hardest things I ever did. You knew you were innocent, but I didn't. Can't you get that into your thick head? I thought you were mad, betraying your best friends and putting it all on Remus"—

"Putting it all on Remus?" Kierra asked, glancing from Dominique to Remus. "What do you mean?"

Sirius sighed. "You were in the states when this happened. We suspected that Remus was the spy."

"For _Voldemort_?" Kierra asked incredulously, but when she saw the heavy frown on Sirius's face, she decided that perhaps this was not a topic to further pursue with him.

"Yeah, for Voldemort." Domininque replied. She turned back to Sirius. "I thought you were the scum of the earth for doing all of that! I lost all my good friends except Remus in one night…I hated you. And yet I couldn't believe it either because I loved you…I thought I knew you. And I never got over the shock. I ran away from the wizarding world just to put it all behind me, and when I come back around, you escape from Azkaban. Everything came rushing back to me…and it drove me insane…I _needed_ comfort. I just got really weak and fell back on Remus for support. And I don't know how many times I have to tell you, Remus didn't initiate anything." And with slight hesitation, she added quietly, "He didn't even kiss me back."

A long silence met this statement. They all just stood there for several moments. Kierra looked at them in turn. Remus and Sirius both stared at their feet, while Dominique stared expectantly at Sirius. Finally, Sirius broke the silence with a sigh.

"Alright then."

Dominique beamed and looked over at Remus, who smiled slightly. "So I'm not a wife-kisser then?" he asked.

Sirius rolled his eyes and shook his head, extending his hand out to Remus, who took it. "Course you're not. Sorry about that, mate…"

"Well!" Dominique said brightly, turning to Kierra and Remus, "Now that we've got that taken care of…Kierra, I'm sorry I blew up at you like that yesterday. I never should have said the things I said. I certainly didn't mean it. I know you're not…well…leeching. Remus had told me all about the night you found out about Edmund and how you met by chance. I don't know what got into me…"

Kierra smiled slightly. "It's alright. You're just defensive of your Lupin. You always have been."

Dominique blushed. "Have not."

"D, the only reason why we haven't spoken all these years was because you got defensive over him when he and I broke up! Remember? You were trying to make me feel all guilty about it, and I got mad…and you called me selfish?" Kierra reminded her, smiling at the remembrance of their immaturity.

Dominique laughed. "It's coming back to me now…God, I was terrible to you. I'm sorry"—

Kierra shook her head. "I wasn't so nice to you myself." And with a small smile, she turned to Remus. "Come to think of it, I wasn't very nice about you either. Dominique provoked me to say some mean things about you"—

"It's all in the past." Remus said with a smile as he waved his hand dismissively. "I don't think I should care to know what you said about me when we broke up. Let's forget about it, shall we?"

Kierra grinned sheepishly. "I suppose I haven't got any right to hold anything against you now, have I?"

"None whatsoever." Remus replied. "Now, what do you say to painting Sirius? No one's due here for several hours…that should give you enough time to strip him down"—

"Yeah, about that…" Dominique started, but Sirius but her off.

"I think this is going to be the highlight of my year…getting painted nude." Sirius said with a sigh. "Man, if Harry knew what his godfather was doing in his spare time…"

* * *

Having no particular desire to see Sirius naked, Remus had retreated to the kitchen to clean up when the others had gone upstairs. As he began to work his way through the pile of dirty dishes in the sink though, he heard Kierra letting out an exasperated groan, followed by the sound of Sirius pleading with someone—he could well imagine it being with either Dominique or Kierra. 

"But I don't want to!" he heard Sirius complain in a voice that nearly qualified as a whine.

"You said you would!" came Kierra's voice.

Remus grinned as he tapped the sponge he was holding with his wand and charmed it into cleaning the dishes itself. Wiping his hands clean, he headed out of the kitchen and followed the sounds of his friends, who were now practically shouting at one another. He found them in Sirius's room with the door left open. Sirius was standing on his bed, clutching his shirt in one hand and making a fist at Kierra with the other.

"You can't make me!" he retorted. Sirius glanced up to see Remus enter the room, smiling at the scene with amusement. "Oy mate—help me out here!"

Kierra glanced over her shoulder to meet Remus's eyes. The sides of her mouth twitched, but before he could see a smile form on her mouth, she had turned back around to face Sirius. "Sirius Black, if you don't take off your pants right now, I'll do it myself!" she said, pulling out her wand.

Sirius and Kierra spent the next twenty minutes arguing over nudity in paintings. Phineas Nigellus, Sirius's great-great-grandfather, had appeared in his portrait and offered some snide bit of commentary, much to the displeasure of Sirius. He had agreed with Kierra that nude paintings could indeed be beautiful works of art, but recoiled when Kierra explained that she wanted Sirius as her subject. Kreacher had also expressed his opinions on the matter, but in a much more indirect manner. As he passed by Sirius's room, he had peered in momentarily, but was immediately kicked out by Sirius. As he stumbled off to go back to cleaning, he muttered under his breath something about lecherous filth of the house, which had prompted Sirius to threaten him with freedom.

Half an hour later, Kierra and Sirius had come to a mutual agreement—Sirius would be painted with a white sheet draped around his waist—and the painting had begun. For almost an hour Sirius sat up straight in his bed with his feet grounded to the floor, his chest puffed out and his arms stretched at his sides. Remus and Dominique had left the room at Kierra's request. ("I don't appreciate wit when I'm trying to work!" she had scolded Remus as she pushed him out when he made a comment about hanging the finished painting over the mantle of the fireplace.) Two and a half hours later, Kierra and Sirius emerged into the kitchen where Dominique and Remus had been making lunch, looking quite tired but pleased with themselves; though Kierra looked more pleased than tired, and Sirius looked more tired than pleased.

"Finished already?" Dominique asked as she set four plates onto the kitchen table.

Kierra nodded, smiling slightly as Sirius plopped onto a chair and buried his face in his arms that rested on the table. "Yes, with the help of a few good painting charms, I got the job done. Poor Sirius is a bit sore though from holding his position for so long…"

"I looked pretty damn good though…" Sirius muttered in a muffled voice, his head still resting in his arms. "Show them the painting, Kierra…"

Kierra sighed and raised her wand, pointing it at the door where they had come from. "Accio!" she said.

A moment later the door flew open and a large canvas whizzed into the kitchen. Kierra lunged forward and caught it abruptly. She took a few seconds to examine the painting herself, frowning immensely as she did so. She had then either decided that there were no flaws in the painting, or that they were too late to fix, as she had turned the canvas around to show the painting to Dominique and Remus.

Sirius had been quite right. He _did_ look good. Most of the painting had been white. Even Sirius's pale skin was close to blending in with the background. His long, shaggy, black hair however, contrasted greatly and seemed to be the focal point of the painting. Kierra had painted Sirius looking away from her, so his dark gray eyes glanced tiredly to their right, where Kierra had painted an open window—something that did not exist in Sirius's room. He had one window, but it should have appeared behind Sirius in the painting, not to his left. And the window had always been left closed. And through this open window poured sunlight, hitting Sirius's chest in such a way that it seemed to illuminate him, outlining the contours of his body, making him look magnificent and slightly cherubic.

"Replicus."

Remus looked up. He hadn't even noticed that Kierra had summoned a blank canvas into the kitchen. It hovered in the air next to the painting of Sirius, and after a few moments, Remus saw color ooze onto it. A minute later, Kierra was offering Dominique the replica of the painting.

"For your own viewing pleasure." Kierra said with a broad grin. "I want to keep the original. I've sort of gotten attached to it in the few hours I spent with it."

Dominique smiled but did not say anything as she accepted the replica from Kierra.

* * *

The winter holiday Remus, Sirius, Kierra and Dominique had shared seemed very distant now. It was the last time the four of them had gotten to stay up all night laughing and talking, and most importantly, relaxing. As the new term had rolled in, Remus found himself too wrapped up in work to come to London more than a couple times a month. If he wasn't grading papers or preparing exams, he was making contacts with the werewolves in the area or having dinner with Kierra and her high profiled, ministry-connected friends, trying to create some allies for the order. He had only spent a handful of long weekends with Sirius in the past few months, half of which occurred during full moons, where Remus would transform for one night, and spend the rest of the weekend trying to recover. 

Remus knew he was walking on thin ice. Sirius's letters became progressively shorter and grimmer. Whenever Remus came to visit, Sirius's mood would lift immediately, but then fall back down just as quickly when the shortness of his stay dawned on him. Remus knew it was his fault, he knew it wasn't good for Sirius to brood alone in his house with no one but Kreacher and Buckbeak for company. He knew he had a responsibility to spend time with Sirius, as a friend. And he would. He was going back this afternoon to spend the entire week with Sirius.

It was already May, and at the Aveyron Acadamy, students were getting ready for final exams. The first few days of the week were dedicated to review sessions, while the rest of the week classes had been cancelled in order to allow students to study. Kierra, whom Remus had ended up confiding in about the growing tension between him and Sirius, offered to take his review sessions for him so he could have the entire week to spend with Sirius.

"It's like he's your little, neglected wife or something…" Kierra joked Friday afternoon, as Remus was getting ready to go. He rolled his eyes as he packed up his briefcase full of papers to grade, should he get a few hours to himself at the headquarters. Kierra merely grinned. "You two would make a cute couple…"

Remus did not look up from his attempts to lock down his briefcase as he imagined himself standing arm in arm with Sirius while they smiled blissfully at each other. He shuddered slightly and shook off the thought. "Except Sirius seems pretty content with Dominique, and I—I'm—well, I _would _be content with a female companion." Remus said, feeling himself blush slightly.

"And I'm sure you'll find one. Actually, that reminds me"—and Kierra smiled coyly at him—"I have a lady friend whose taken a fancy to you…I think you'd like her. She's very bookish and sweet, but fearful shy. Would you be interested?"

Remus looked up at her. _Not particularly_, he thought. He already had a lady friend of his own that he'd taken a fancy to. His dreams about Kierra had not stopped at Grimmauld Place. Months after his first dream of her, Kierra continued to enter his dreams from time to time. He felt extremely guilty about them, for knowing and allowing these dreams to dictate his regard for her. He had grown increasingly tense around her over the months, most particularly when she exhibited her less-than ladylike decorum in dress and manners. For example, at the moment she was wearing a see-through red blouse that showed off her strapless bra, paired with a black leather skirt that looked too short to be legal to wear in public.

"Er—are you going somewhere?" he asked suddenly.

Kierra smiled. "Yes, I am. While you're over at headquarters making amends with Sirius, _I_ will be on a date!"

"A date?" Remus asked, with more surprise in his voice than he thought polite. "I mean"—

Kierra laughed. "Well, I thought it was about time I move on with my life…plus Sirius—the big mouth he is—told Kingsley I fancied him"—

"Doesn't Kingsley have a girlfriend?" Remus asked. He felt as if a weight had fallen into the pit of his stomach.

"Well, yes. But he told Sirius he had a distant cousin living in the area who was…well, closer to my age." She said sheepishly. "Anyway, do I look alright?"

Remus looked over her once more and frowned. "You look nice"—

"But?"

"…but it's a first date…you don't want to give him the wrong the wrong impression. Perhaps you should dress a bit more—er—conservatively." Remus said with a tentative smile.

Kierra frowned as she retreated to her room. "But I like this outfit!" she complained. "My date's in about half an hour, what am I supposed to wear then?"

Remus abandoned his packing and followed her into her room. She was standing in front of her closet, frowning as she rummaged through it. "He's taking me to a really posh restaurant"—she groaned as she brushed aside a black t-shirt—"it's times like these I really wish I was living with Dominique…I could just borrow her clothes…"

"I'm sorry…I shouldn't have criticized your clothes…" Remus said. "You really do look nice…I just don't want that guy thinking he can take advantage of you…"

Kierra nodded. "I get you…and I appreciate your concern. But"—

"Well, how about this one?" Remus asked, pulling out knee-length black dress with long sleeves and a high collar. Truth be told, it was a bit ugly and old-fashioned looking, but that was beside the point. It was modest looking, and covered most of Kierra's body…

Kierra made a face. "I've only worn that dress once—to a funeral."

Remus shrugged as he replaced the dress in her closet and went to go sit on her bed. As Kierra continued her search for a new outfit, she looked over her shoulder once to see Remus. "So, you never answered my question. Are you interested in seeing Sheila?"

"Sheila?"

Kierra rolled her eyes. "My friend! The one who likes you…can I set you two up?"

Remus frowned. "I don't know any Sheila…how does she know me?"

"She works at the school, silly. She's the headmaster's secretary…I'm sure you've seen her."

"Oh." Remus thought back to the few times he had gone to the headmaster's office and met with his secretary. A petite little woman with jet black hair, who always seemed too busy pouring over parchments of files to notice anyone walk into the office…that was Sheila. "She…she likes me?" he asked uncertainly. "I didn't even think she noticed me when I would come in."

Kierra grinned mischievously as she pulled out another black dress from her closet. "Well, she definitely takes notice when you leave." Kierra laughed as Remus pulled a scandalized face. "What do you think of this one?" she asked, holding up her black dress over her. It was slightly shorter than the funeral dress Remus had picked out, but definitely looked like something of this decade. He shrugged, and Kierra immediately kicked him out so she could change clothes.

* * *

Several minutes later, Remus found himself in the living room again, ironing one of his robes that he had wanted to take with him to Grimmauld Place. As he carefully folded his pressed out robes and placed them in his bag, he looked down and noticed the state of his shirt. It was a bit tatty looking, but it was the only shirt he had with him at the moment. Perhaps if he ironed it out a bit to make himself look a bit more presentable… 

"Er—Kierra?" Remus asked as he tapped lightly on her door.

"Mmm?"

"How much longer are you going to be?"

"Just a few minutes—I'm trying to decide what knickers to wear—why?"

"You plan on showing him your knickers?"

"No! But what if he _does _see them? What if there's a gust of wind or something, and my dress flies up? I don't want him seeing my high-cut granny knickers!"

"Er—right then."

Remus backed away from Kierra's door and pulled off his shirt, spreading it out on the ironing board. He could have done the ironing in his room, but the board was just so big and bulky, it was easier to leave it in its spot in the living room. He pressed the iron firmly against the sleeve of his shirt, running it as hard as he could against the fabric to speed up the process. He knew there was nothing wrong with taking off his shirt in Kierra's presence…but at the same time it _did_ seem wrong. Maybe it was because of Kierra's readiness to walk around their flat in revealing clothes and to sit around in skirts without crossing her legs, that Remus felt at least one of them had to have a higher sense of propriety and modesty…

As he finished pressing his shirt, Remus tapped the iron with his wand to turn it off, and hastily put on his shirt. Halfway through, he realized he was putting it on backwards in his haste. He took his shirt off again, turned it around and attempted again. As he pushed his head and arms through the shirt, he heard Kierra's door swing open. Remus inhaled somewhat sharply, and immediately pulled down on his shirt to cover his torso. He glanced sideways to see Kierra looking at him casually while she patted her hair lightly with one hand. She looked amused.

"I know I can't walk around topless in here, but you're more than welcome to." Kierra said with a grin.

"That's alright." Remus more brusquely than he intended to as he passed by Kierra to go to his own room to pack a few more items in his bag. "I was just ironing the shirt I was wearing, that's all…"

He heard Kierra laugh. "Oh, your shyness would suit Sheila so well! You never gave me an answer, by the way. Are you trying to imply you don't want to see her, or do I keep changing the subject before you get a chance to answer?"

"It's the latter. And I guess I'll give it a shot."

"Shall I arrange something then?"

"Sure…"

"Excellent! I'll talk to her when I next see her…"

"Great." Remus forced a smile as he emerged from his room with his traveling back and briefcase. "Well, have fun on your date, and…well, I'll see you next week then."

Kierra smiled and waved, and a moment later he disapparated. She grabbed her wand, and then looked down at herself, trying to decide if she should stick it inside her dress. She tucked it inside through her neckline, but made a face when she saw that it made a long, unsightly bulge in her dress. She headed back to her room and rummaged through her closet, and pulled out a pair of black, knee length boots. She smiled, grateful to have such a friend like Dominique to have taught her all these fashion tricks. She kicked off her sandals and pulled on the boots, tucking her wand into the leg of her right boot. Pulling herself to her feet, Kierra headed back to the living room to retrieve her purse, but stopped as she ran into the ironing board. Kierra pulled out her wand, and with a flick, the board folded up and tucked itself underneath the futon. She sighed as she made a grab for her purse that was lying on the futon. Remus was usually good about staying tidy and putting things away. But he did seem a bit distracted today…even when he agreed to go out on a date with her friend Sheila, he complied with very little enthusiasm. Come to think of it, he seemed to be distracted and somewhat tense for several months now. Spending less and less time with Kierra, and more time holed up in his room, or outside jogging. Kierra snorted at the thought of Remus exercising…jogging in the neighborhood park with tennis shoes and sweats. And yet it was a reality. He would go almost every day, and would come back in a sweat, but apparently with enough energy to retreat to his room to do a few dozen sit-ups, some sort of muggle exercise that strengthened the abdomen. Janine and Harvey, who were both healers, were big fans of muggle fitness, saying witches and wizards could take a leaf out of their books when it came to health and wellness. Kierra laughed at them when they insisted that she too, should be more active, but she knew they were right. It certainly was making a difference on Remus… She couldn't help but raise her eyebrows slightly in surprise when she saw Remus pulling his shirt on—his long, lanky figured seemed to have gained considerable definition—and she could see that his fitness routines had certainly not been fruitless efforts.

_Lucky gal, that Sheila…_ she thought with a grin as she disapparated for her date with Kingsley's cousin.

* * *

"Sirius, you're pretty good with the potions, aren't you?" Remus asked as he took a sip of pumpkin juice. 

Sirius cocked an eyebrow at him. "Decent enough…couldn't make a wolfsbane potion if my life depended on it though. But you're already aware of that, aren't you? Why do you ask?"

"Oh…well…" Remus fingered the rim of his goblet nervously. Why did he have to be completely abysmal at potions? He wasn't particularly keen on even Sirius knowing. "Well…I needed a sleeping draught. I know it's pathetic that I can't make them, they're simple enough…but there it is. I need one. Not a strong one…I don't have much trouble sleeping…but just one that causes dreamless sleep." He looked up expectantly at Sirius, waiting for him to laugh or grin, or even wiggle his eyebrows knowingly at him. But he didn't. On the contrary, he looked rather concerned.

"A potion for dreamless sleep?" Sirius asked, rubbing his chin. "A sleeping draught isn't what you want. If you're not having trouble sleeping and you take it, you might fall into a permanent sleep. But I think I know a potion I could make for you that makes your sleep dreamless. Er—so—are you having really bad dreams then? Nightmares?" He looked uncertainly at Remus, seeming concerned yet unsure about invading his privacy.

"Well…not quite, to be honest." Remus replied, averting his eyes from Sirius and opting to stare at his drink instead. "I just…well…I've been having a lot dreams lately…that I shouldn't have…and I know they're meaningless, but they still trouble me…"

Sirius shook his head. "Dreams aren't meaningless, mate. Well, not all the time. So—er—have you been dreaming about"—Sirius raised his eyebrows at Remus—you know…certain people…"

Remus sighed and nodded slowly. Sirius was one of his best friends. Of course he'd be able to see right through him.

"It's alright, mate…" Sirius said, patting him on the shoulder lightly, "It's normal. Well, I think it is anyway…you know, when you're all lonely, your mind tends to wander…"

"Have you ever dreamt"—

Sirius nodded, and bowing his head low, he sighed. "Fraid I have. Just once…in the beginning of the year when no one was around. It was so random…man, I still can't look Hagrid in the eye sometimes…"

"Hagrid?" Remus asked, his eyes widening suddenly. Perhaps they weren't talking about the same thing after all…

Sirius bit his lip in realization. "Oh damn. You weren't talking about—damnit. Nevermind then. Just what the hell were you talking about then anyway?" Sirius demanded, looking slightly irritated at having accidentally admitting what he felt was a dark secret.

Remus fought back a laugh. "I'm sorry…"

Sirius glared at him, but suddenly began to smile in the knowing way that Remus hated. "Oh…so you're having dreams of ladies then?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at Remus. "Or is it just one specific lady?"

"Sirius"—

"Does her name begin with a K?"

Remus had opened his mouth to tell Sirius to shut up, but there burst of flamed erupted from the fireplace, and Tonks tumbled out onto the living room floor.

"Wotcher"—

There were two more bursts of flames, and in the next moment, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody were helping Tonks up.

"Nice of you all to drop in!" Sirius said cheerily as he summoned a case of butterbeers. "We were just talking about Remus's love life!"

Remus glared at Sirius. "We were not"—he began, but was immediately cut off by Tonks.

"Really? You're not with that Kierra girl, are you?"

Kingsley raised an eyebrow at Remus. "You're not, are you? I thought she was seeing my cousin."

"She's on her first date with him right now." Remus said with a smile, hoping Kingsley would not demand an answer for the first question.

Sirius raised his eyebrows at Remus. "She's seeing him?"

"Sirius, you're the one who passed on all the information to Kierra about him!"

"Oh—that's right." Said Sirius rather glumly. He took a sip of his drink and fell silent as the others continued to talk.

It took several minutes to convince Kingsley and Tonks (Moody didn't seem particularly interested in Remus's affairs, thankfully) that he didn't really have a love life, except that Kierra was going to arrange a date between him and one of her friends. At this, Sirius's ears perked up.

"You didn't tell me about that, Moony." Sirius said, with a look of amusement on his face.

"I was _getting_ to it…" was Remus's reply as he got up. "Sirius, come and help me get some food from the kitchen."

"Oooh, I'll help!" Tonks said brightly as she got up, but Remus held up his hand at her.

"Tonks, you just got here, give yourself a rest." Remus said with a smile. "Sirius?"

Sirius followed Remus into the kitchen, and leaned his head against the wall as he watched, with much amusement, as Remus busied himself in making snacks for the others.

"So…you've got yourself dreaming about Kierra to the point you'd like to shag her"—

"Think you could keep it down, Padfoot?" Remus asked in a slightly irritated voice. "Sort of defeating the purpose of us coming over here…"

Sirius grinned. "Right. And now she's hooked you up with one of her friends. What's her name?"

"Sheila."

"Do you know her?"

"I've only seen her a few times. She's a secretary at the school." Remus replied. "But she doesn't have anything to do with this. I just want to know if you can make me the potion…"

Sirius laughed. "By the sounds of it, these dreams don't seem bad at all. Why do you want them to stop?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Because…I'm not dating Kierra and I never will."

"Why not?"

"Because…"

Sirius rolled his eyes and mimicked Remus. "_Because!_ Honestly, Moony. What are you, ten?"

Remus scowled at him. "That's supposed to be my line…"

Sirius grinned. "Tables have turned, mate. They always do when you start fancying girls. You always seemed to lose all rationale when it came to talking about girls you liked. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Point is, I don't think you need any potion. You clearly enjoy these dreams—don't look at me like that"—Sirius said when Remus looked indignantly at him—"you know you do. And you feel all guilty now because you think you shouldn't. Who gives a damn? They're just dreams! They'll probably go away once you hook up with this Sheila lady, that is, if you like her anyway. And if they don't go away, and you don't seem to like Sheila, then screw it, suck it up, and ask Kierra out."

"Easier said than done, Sirius. I doubt Kierra even likes me like that, and anyway, she lives with me."

"So?"

"So? If she says no, it'll be completely awkward! She'd end up moving out!"

"So?"

Remus sighed. "But I'd still see her at school…and in the order"—

"Remus, you're looking at this wrong." Sirius said sigh a sigh. "You're making way too big a deal about this. So she says no…so she moves out and it's all awkward…who cares? It'll pass away soon enough! It's not the end of the world!"

Remus sighed again, admitting defeat. "I'm not as brave as you, Sirius."

Sirius laughed as he helped Remus arrange sandwiches onto a plate. "You were a Gryffindor, mate. Course you're brave."

"Not when it comes to women though."

"Touché, Remus." Sirius said with another laugh as they carried two trays of food out to the living room. "Don't worry, you'll come around soon enough."

"I'm assuming this means no potion."

"Damn straight. You know what the say, _Carpe Diem._ Seize the day. Enjoy those dreams while they last, Moony. They're bound to disappear sooner or later."

Remus rolled his eyes and jabbed Sirius in the back with his tray as they entered the living room. Sirius laughed, but as he took in the sight of his living room, he stopped immediately in his tracks, causing Remus to bump into him, almost dropping his tray.

"What are you"—Remus peered around Sirius, and immediately understood why Sirius had fallen still—"Hello, Severus."

Severus Snape stood with his arms folded over his chest, glaring at Remus and Sirius.

"What're you doing here?" Sirius asked. "Is Harry alright?"

"That remains to be seen." Snape replied coolly. "I was just checking to make sure you were here, Black. It seems as though your godson had the notion that you had been taken to the department of mysteries. Proof enough of his lack of competency in occlumency"—

"Hold on"—Sirius took several steps forward until he was standing only a few feet away from Snape—"Harry told you he dreamt"—

"Of course not. Umbridge summoned me to her office, where I found him, along with cronies Granger, Lovegood, Longbottom and the two Weasley children. She asked me to give her a bottle of veritaserum to question Harry on your whereabouts. She believed that he was attempting to contact you."

"He never contacted me." Sirius said, though he looked a bit distant.

"What is it, Sirius?" Tonks asked, getting up quickly.

"Buckbeak. He was injured earlier today. It took me a couple of hours to tend to him. I wonder if Harry came by then and didn't find me…"

"It's quite possible. All he said was that they had _Snuffles_, whom I assumed to be _you_." Snape said, raising his eyebrow ever so slightly at Sirius.

"That is me." Sirius replied, too deep in thought to give Snape an ugly look. "So he still thinks I'm at the ministry?"

"I can't say. Umbridge kicked me out when I told her it would take a month to make veritaserum. Whatever he may think though, I doubt Potter and his friends have managed to escape Umbridge and her inquisitorial squad." Snape replied.

"Severus, can you go back and check on them?" Remus asked. "I have a bad feeling that given the chance, Harry would find a way to get into the department of mysteries to look for Sirius."

Snape, who looked quite tempted to spit on Remus for making a request of him, simply nodded. "I'll stop by Umbridge's office, asking to have a word with one of my students. I'll send a signal if Potter and his friends are safe." And with that, Snape waved his wand, and in a burst of flames, he disappeared.

The group spent the next hour sitting in the living room—except for Sirius, who had opted to pace around nervously—waiting. Why hadn't Snape sent a signal yet? That clearly meant that Harry and his friends were not alright. Some had happened. But why hadn't Snape appeared with an update of the situation? Just then, flames burst again in the living room, and Snape reappeared before them. Sirius had never been so happy to see him in his life…

"Where is he?" Sirius asked at once.

Snape, who normally took the time to glare at Sirius and remark at him snidely, looked quite grave now. "I arrived at Umbridge's office to find all of my students, who are in the inquisitorial squad, half conscious. I barely managed to get the story out of Mr. Malfoy. It seems that Granger told Umbridge a cock-and-bull story about how they were trying to reach Dumbledore, to tell him the weapon they were making him was ready, and then offered to show Umbridge were it was hidden. She then led Granger and Potter off to discover the weapon, and it was sometime after this that Potter's other friends attacked their captors, leaving them in the state that I found them."

"Where did they go?" Moody asked, swinging his magical eye on Snape, who shuddered slightly at the sight of it.

"I searched everywhere, and eventually found Umbridge in the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey told me she had been attacked by centaurs."

"They led her to the dark forest?" Sirius asked, looking quite amused. "Brilliant…"

"Not quite." Snape cut in. "I went looking for them there, but could not find them. Nor were they to be found anywhere in the school, which leads me to believe that they still think you are being held captive by the Dark Lord."

Sirius's smile fell. "They went…" he muttered. "They all went…"

"Let's head out." Kingsley said immediately as he and Tonks got up.

Sirius made forward to join the group, but Snape held his hand up. "Dumbledore is due here in an hour or so. He'll need to be informed. And you know his instructions to you"—

"My instructions can go to hell." Sirius replied, turning to the door to beckon Kreacher, but to his surprise, he was already here, peering into the living room and watching the sight with slight fascination. "Kreacher!" he said quickly, trying to brush away the uneasiness he felt at the thought of Kreacher eavesdropping on the conversation. "We're all going to the department of mysteries to save Harry and his friends. They think I'm there. You tell Dumbledore all of this when he comes. Do you understand?"

"Yes, master." Kreacher said, bowing ridiculously low. Sirius raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised at the lack of side comments from his house elf, but immediately shrugged it off as he joined the others and disapparated.

* * *

Dominique burst into the living room of Twelve Grimmauld Place with a much larger bang than she had expected. She picked herself up from the ground, dusting off the ashes and soot from her robes. The house was dead silent. She took a few steps inside the living room. There were two trays of sandwiches and cookies on the coffee table, and several bottles of butterbeer and goblets of what looked like pumpkin juice. 

"Sirius!" she called. No answer.

"Sirius! Remus!"

Silence. Where were they? They were both supposed to be here. Unless they had gone out…but no, Remus wasn't so foolhardy as to let Sirius sneak off with him, even under the guise of a dog or invisibility cloak…

"Remus! Sirius!" she called again as she took a few more steps towards the hallway. Just then, the screeching sound of Mrs. Black sounded, causing Dominique to jump. But what came next startled her even more—a cold voice throwing a stunning charm at the portrait to silence it—a voice vaguely familiar, but one that she did not entirely recognize. She took a couple of steps back, clutching tightly to her wand. A moment later, Severus Snape appeared at the entrance of the living room, pocketing his wand.

"Severus!" Dominique breathed, loosening her grip on her wand considerably. "What are you—where's Sirius? And Remus?" When he did not answer, she inhaled sharply. "Are they alright?"

"Lupin is alright." Snape finally said.

"But Sirius?" asked Dominique, her voice growing high and anxious. "Where did they go?"

"Department of Mysteries," replied Snape, "Potter had a vision that the Dark Lord had taken him"—

"Sirius?"

"Yes. Sirius." Snape said with some effort. "He thought he was seeing into the Dark Lord's mind. However, it was the reverse. The Dark Lord planted the scenario in Potter's mind. Ignorant of this fact however, he and his friends went to the ministry with the intent to save his godfather, only to find that it had been a trick to lure him there. Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley and Moody were here when the news reached me, so they all went to retrieve the others. Dumbledore came here and briefly explained to me what happened at the ministry. It seems as though several death eaters had arrived and attempted to take the prophecy that Potter had found with his name on it, and kill the children. The order members arrived in time to prevent that though."

"And Sirius?" Dominique repeated, her eyes wide with concern. "Is he alright? Is he _going_ to be alright?"

Snape's cold, black eyes did not avert from Dominique's gaze as he shook his head.

Dominique felt her knees go weak. "He's not"—she started to whisper, but the look on Snape's face said it all. She felt air rushing out of her lungs as Snape nodded, confirming her fears with a small nod.

Her hand immediately fell to her stomach as she breathed hard, practically gasping for air. He _couldn't_ be…she had only seen him a week ago. He had kissed her on the lips and said "See you next week then." It was today. She was _supposed_ to see him today…

Dominique vaguely felt a hand on her shoulder and being led to sit down. She felt someone sit down next to her. She recalled Snape's image, but it seemed a bit distant at the moment…Sirius was gone. She would never see him again…

"Dominique"—

Dominique looked up to see Severus's gaze upon her. She was startled at the difference in his countenance. A thin trace of concern on his face…

She opened her mouth to speak, to tell him he could leave, knowing he must be feeling very awkward at the moment. But no words came out. Dominique buried her face in her hands and cried.

* * *

Kierra jumped off the futon, hairbrush in hand, as she belted out to her favorite Weird Sisters song, "Petrify Me." She smiled proudly as the song came to an end. It seemed like perfect day to let loose with music, to dance and sing to heart's content, as Remus was not home, nor was their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Danglar, who had gone to Venice to visit her daughter and was generally not fond of Kierra and her loudness, as she constantly told Remus when they happened to run into each other. 

Kierra turned off her wireless with a flick of her wand, and set out to making dinner. Dancing and singing for two hours straight certainly worked up an appetite. Half an hour later, Kierra halfway through with a pizza she had made. Another perk to not having Remus around. Though he ate whatever she made without complaints, she knew he preferred cheese pizza. But with him not around, and not due for several more days, Kierra happily piled a mountain of mushrooms on her pizza. She wondered how he was getting along though with Sirius. He had seemed so distracted when he left the day before. But he would cheer up soon enough. Kierra smiled inwardly as she popped open a bottle of butterbeer, thinking of how excited Sheila had been when Kierra told her Remus was interested in her. Well, he hadn't exactly said he was interested, per se… but he agreed to go out with her all the same. And he _would_ be interested in her after their first date, which she had set for next week.

She had thought of going along with a double date, bringing Kingsley's cousin Michael, but that plan had changed after her first date with him. It had been a complete dud. While they might have been related, Michael was nothing like Kingsley, neither in personality nor in looks. He was several inches shorter than Kierra, which she couldn't help but feel very conscious about throughout the date. He was also extremely quiet, and tended to mumble a lot—nothing like the deep, smooth voice his cousin Kingsley had...

Kierra was suddenly taken out of her reverie at the sound of a pop from the living room. Kierra, who had tilted her chair back on two legs, nearly fell over at the surprise. Remus had just apparated, looking thoroughly distraught.

"Remus!" Kierra exclaimed, jumping up immediately. "What are you doing back so early? And"—she wrinkled her eyebrows in concern as she looked over his appearance—"what's wrong? Did something happen?"

Remus frowned, but did not look at her. He usually looked down at his feet when he felt unhappy or uncomfortable, but now he was staring past Kierra, though looking at nothing in particular. Slowly, he nodded.

"What happened?" She asked, taking his things and putting them on the table. She returned to him and led him to the sofa, sitting him down next to her. "Something with the order?"

He nodded again, finally looking her in the eyes. He had to tell her. _Firm, strong voice_ he told himself. He had forced himself to be strong in front of Harry and his friends. He would do so now as well. "Sirius—he—he's"—

"He's not alright?" Kierra asked suddenly, her eyes widening with concern. "What happened to him?"

Remus shook his head, his gaze dropping to his hands. He took a deep breath and looked Kierra in the eyes again. "He—he's dead, Kierra"—

But before he could go further, before he could tell her that Bellatrix Lestrange had done it, before he could tell her that he died in battle, protecting Harry and his friends, a lump formed in the back of his throat, obstructing any sound from getting through. He tried to clear it, but it strained his eyes. Tears built up in his eyes, but he couldn't let them fall. But before he could stop them, they were falling freely, and next thing he knew, he was wrapped in Kierra's arms, crying into her lap.


	53. Chapter 54: Property of R J Lupin

_A/N: er—slightly explicit descriptions here. ok maybe not that explicit...I think I've just become a bit of a prude lately...lol oh yeah…and um, apologies to you, lupin is my hero, for not keeping my word. I swear, I would've had this posted by 2am…but there was a bit of a fiasco in my room that kept me from finishing up that night; lol long story…let's just say I've finally come to an understanding at just how ridiculously scared I am of spiders…lol_

Chapter 55: Property of R.J. Lupin

Kierra wrung her hands nervously as she paced around her bedroom. It had been almost a week since Sirius's death, and Remus was supposed to be returning from London today, after seeing Harry off for the summer and giving a quick warning to his aunt and uncle regarding their treatment of him. She hadn't spoken to him since last week, when he came back to break the news of Sirius to her. And he had hardly spoken. He had barely gotten the words out before he broke down. Kierra shut her eyes trying to block out the memory. She had never seen Remus cry before, and was fairly certain that it was not something that occurred with frequency. He looked defeated and broken, sobbing into her lap, muttering incoherent phrases every few seconds. For Kierra, the news had come as quite a shock, but she couldn't bring herself to cry. Not when Remus needed someone to be calm and strong for him, the way he had always been for his friends. They hardly spoke that evening. Remus quietly told Kierra of how they ended up in the department of mysteries in search for Harry and his friends, and how Bellatrix and Sirius had been dueling. How Sirius had dared her to perform better, and how Bellatrix rose to the challenge…He had spent the rest of the evening in solitude, not even bothering to come out of his room for dinner. The following day, Remus had gone back to London to see to order business, and almost immediately after he left, Kierra began wandering about the apartment—for nearly an hour, staring off into space, trying to comprehend what had happened—until she found herself pulling out a painting from underneath her bed…the painting she had made of Sirius months before…There he was before her, staring out his window, soaking up the sunlight…he looked alive…he _was_ alive… Kierra stared at the painting until her eyes began to water. She had tucked it back underneath her bed, and curling her knees up to her chest, she cried silently. She had not gotten a chance to know him at all. All the years she had known him…and she had not _really _known him. Not the way Dominique or Remus did. Yet she missed him desperately…

Kierra heard a popping sound from the living room, and she immediately drew breath as she hurried out to meet Remus. He forced a weak hello as she smiled and greeted him with a hug.

"Did you see Harry off?" she asked as she took his bag from him and set it on the kitchen table. "Is he alright?"

Remus sighed. "He will be soon enough. I think he looked slightly comforted when we insisted that we hear from him at least every three days. It'll beat last summer, I'm sure."

Kierra nodded, remembering how Remus had told her of Harry's frustrations with being left in the dark for a good part of the summer. "And how's everything with the order? How's Dominique? Have you talked to her?"

"Briefly. She needs some time though, obviously. Probably more than any of us. Dumbledore told me he's considering offering her the teaching post at Hogwarts for defense against the dark arts. Umbridge is out now, obviously."

Kierra forced a smile. Well, that was certainly something to be happy about. That and the removal of Cornelius Fudge from the ministry. Nymphadora Tonks had written her the day before, updating her on the goings at the ministry. "Well, I hope she takes it. She can be closer to Dumbledore then. And Harry…"

Remus nodded. "Yes, I certainly hope she takes it too. It'll be good for her…"

Kierra watched as Remus started to head back to his room. She frowned slightly. "Remus"—he turned around and looked at her—"how are you?" she asked, raising her eyebrows concernedly at him. He simply shrugged in response and smiled weakly.

"Fine…" he managed to say. He turned back around to go to his room. "I'll be fine, thanks…"

* * *

"Thank you, Dominique for agreeing to see me."

Dominique forced a smile at her great-uncle as she took a seat across from him in Hogwarts office. "No problem."

"Well," Dumbledore began, looking down his half-moon spectacles at his niece, "I thought with the upcoming expiration of your contract with the Parisian orchestra I might offer you a position here at Hogwarts. As you know, we're in need of a defense against the dark arts professor, and I couldn't think of anyone more suited for the position than you."

Dominique cocked an eyebrow at Dumbledore. "Me?"

Dumbledore smiled slightly and nodded. "As a former auror"—

"I never got around to actually _being_ an auror. I was just training…you know that…"

"Nevertheless, you have plenty of background in defense and I know you'd be able to handle yourself well in a classroom."

Dominique looked at him skeptically. "This isn't a pity offer, is it? Because I can easily renew my contract with the orchestra…"

Dumbledore smiled. "It's a genuine offer. I can assure you that I did not get Umbridge fired simply for the purpose of hiring you. I did however approach you for this position before I did for anyone else for the simple reason that we are both responsible for Harry Potter. I need a staff member who can watch him and befriend him, and you have a duty to him as his new guardian. It is needless to say that your employment here would sufficiently accomplish both our goals."

Dominique nodded. She hadn't seen Harry Potter since he was a baby. She didn't even know him, and suddenly she was his guardian. Part of her wanted to get up and run out of Dumbledore's office and hand the responsibility over to Remus, but she knew she could not back out of this. She knew it would be selfish to stay in France, never really meeting her friends' son. Never carrying on for Sirius…

"So…" Dominique said slowly, "when do I get to move back to Hogwarts?"

* * *

Many nights later, Remus found himself staring at the ceiling as he lay in bed. He _needed_ to go to sleep. He was administering exams the following morning. He knew he wouldn't fall asleep for hours though. He hadn't been able to sleep soundly the whole week. His mind would keep wandering to Sirius, who now seemed to be thousands of miles away from him, or perhaps in a whole new world, but not entirely gone. The idea of a world without Sirius—it was practically incomprehensible. He knew, as Dumbledore tended to remind him, that those they love never truly leave them. He knew that. He certainly felt that Sirius had not truly disappeared, yet the raw fact that he would never see his friend again completely tormented him.

Yet Sirius's memory was not the only one that tormented him. Dreams of a certain flatmate continued to reappear, even though he had gone on his first date with Sheila Forester and was planning on seeing her again at the end of the week when exams were through. Sirius told him the dreams would go away at this point. _"…And if they don't go away, and you don't seem to like Sheila, then screw it, suck it up, and ask Kierra out."_ Sirius had added. But he didn't _not_ like Sheila. She was a nice woman. She was interesting and funny too. Well, he'd give it another try at the end of the week. But if it didn't work out, would he be able to ask Kierra out? His heart pounded anxiously at the mere thought. As he turned over in his bed to lie on his side, he sighed. He _needed_ to make an effort with Sheila…

* * *

Kierra shook her hips rhythmically to the sound of the song on her muggle radio as she wiped the kitchen table clean. She loved the feeling of turned-in grades. It made her feel so easy and carefree, that cleaning hardly seemed like work for her. With the mountain of exams and essays to grade during the past week, neither Kierra nor Remus had found much time to maintain their flat, resulting in the progressive accumulation of clutter and disorder all around. But they were finished now with the school year, and had a lovely two and a half months to relax almost entirely (they were still expected to draw up lesson plans for the following school year and attend a few meetings at the castle over the summer). Kierra had wanted to go out with Remus to celebrate, but was pleasantly surprised to find that he had plans to see Sheila again. She smiled happily at the thought of the couple as she attempted to clean off paint stains she had left on their futon. They were cute together. She had seen them leave together from the castle for their date, and she couldn't help but giggle. Remus was nearly two feet taller than his petite date, and from behind, it looked a bit as though he was walking with his daughter. She made a mental note to mention this to Remus, mostly for the sake of annoying him.

"Wingardium Leviosa." She muttered aloud, waving her wand at the pile of laundry on the futon. Her clothes hovered in the air for a moment, and with another swish of her wand, the clothes flew off in the direction of her room. She then turned her attention to Remus's stack of clothes and waved her wand again, bringing them into the air. She waved her wand again, pointing it in the direction of Remus's room. Just as the clothes pushed Remus's door open and made their way into his room, Kierra's radio started making crackling noises, causing the song playing to grow fuzzier. As Kierra turned away from her magic to glance at the radio though, Remus's clothes plopped onto the floor. Kierra tucked her wand in her pocket and went to turn the radio off. She then headed to Remus's room and began collecting his clothes off the floor. She walked over to his bed to place the now neatly folded stack there, but found that his bed was covered with books and papers. With some effort she pushed aside a heavy stack of advanced magical theory books away, and dropped his stack of laundry in their place. She shook her head as she glanced over the mess of books. During the past week, Remus had spent hours pouring over his books, checking the facts of his students' essays when they presented information about defense magic that seemed foreign to him.

Kierra knew of a shelving charm, but the last time she had tried it, her books stacked themselves in her bookshelf upside down. She leaned forward and began re-shelving his books by hand, occasionally wondering if he had any strange methods of organizing his books, though she opted to arrange them by size. Several minutes later, Kierra reached for the last book—or what she had thought to be the last book. _The Practice of Unforgivables_ lay open on his bed, and as she picked it up and shut it, she discovered a small, leather-bound book sitting underneath it. She shelved _Unforgivables_ and picked up the unlabeled book. It looked like a very old, tatty planner or muggle address book, but knew Remus used neither. She opened the book, and on the inside front cover in elegant script she found the words, _Property of R.J. Lupin_, and below it, _1976_. Kierra frowned, trying to remember where she was in 1976. Hogwarts…sixth year. She glanced down again at the book, and over on the next page, in handwriting that looked vaguely familiar, it read:

_Happy Christmas, mate! Yes, I know. I'm the most uncreative friend ever. Another book for you to make precious love to. (I'd get you a girl, but I don't know anyone here mad enough to have you). Thought you could do with a little haven to spill your poetic little soul into. Merlin knows the rest of us can't stand hearing about your reflections on life. Just kidding. Well, no, maybe I'm not. Anyway knock yourself out, but don't try to jinx it so Padfoot, Wormtail and I can't read it—we shall know if you've tried. _

–_Prongs._

Kierra couldn't help but laugh. James…and it had sounded like him. She wondered what Remus had been doing with such an old journal in the middle of exam week. Perhaps with Sirius's death he had felt pangs of nostalgia and had taken a stroll down memory lane. Kierra smiled fondly of the memories she had at Hogwarts, now wondering at what moments Remus had treasured most of all…

Ignoring the annoying tug on her conscience, Kierra turned to the next page and began reading.

_14 January 1977 _

_Had to dock points from Gryffindor because James somehow managed to sneak into the girls' dormitory while they were sleeping and dyed the girls' hair purple. Bit pervy, sneaking up there like that. I think he realized he crossed the line when Lily hexed him, and Alice threatened to hex me if I didn't take away house points. Sirius is a bit mad that I listened to her, and hasn't spoken to me all day. I wouldn't mind turning in my prefect's badge sometimes…_

_17 February 1977_

_I'm being stalked. I know it. The others think I'm mad, but I swear, this whole week I've been seeing a pair of brown eyes staring at me through the bookshelves in the library when I study…_

Kierra laughed. That had been her, as she had admitted to Remus a year later when they began to date. She began leafing through the pages, occasionally finding cards of famous witches and wizards that normally came with packets of chocolate frogs, as well as sketches of random objects drawn on scrap paper (she felt guilty laughing out loud at Remus's artistic abilities. He was only sixteen…) She noticed that there were hardly any entries, but mostly quotations and poems, which she assumed to be his own work as he had not cited any other authors. As she flipped to a page that was marked 30 April 1977 though, she stopped and looked down at it, drawn to an entry that seemed relatively long in comparison to the other entries in the journal.

_I just punched one of my best friends. I, Remus John Lupin, just punched Sirius Fitzwilliam Black. And I don't regret it. He deserved it. James and Peter think so too. He betrayed me—he betrayed all of us. I don't understand what he was thinking…egging Snape on to find out where I go every month. He could've killed Snape. I could've killed Snape…or turned him into a monster. I could've made him like me. And I would have to live with it. I know Sirius isn't an evil person…but…what is wrong with him? Why would he want me to have that on my conscience? Even if I didn't harm Snape…I'll forever live with the fact that I almost did. What's more, he used me as a means to an end. That's not what our friendship is for. Was for. That's not why we spent months creating a map and signing our names on it as a pact of fraternity. It's clear now that it's all meaningless to him. He'll do what he wants for his kicks…_

Kierra turned the page, expecting to find another entry, mentioning him making up with Sirius. But there was none—only a brief entry dated to a month later, talking about exams. She vaguely remembered the incident—it had taken place in the great hall—all she saw was Sirius and Remus suddenly standing up and shouting at each other. Sirius had let out a loud laugh, and a moment later had fallen backwards against the table by the force of Remus's punch. Kierra smiled slightly, remembering that this day had been marked as the one that made Remus a popular topic of discussion in the girls' loos. She only wondered how long it took Remus and Sirius to make up…

Kierra skipped through several more pages until she found herself glancing through his seventh year entries. Her smile broadened as she flew past the months. They had started dating…had he written anything about her? After a few minutes of careful skimming, Kierra finally found her name under 28 January 1978.

_Just finished studying for arithmancy exam with Lily. Kierra looked slightly put out when we emerged from the library after three hours. I suppose that is a lot of time to spend alone with a girl who's not your girlfriend. I made it up to her though. Well, I tried to anyway. I borrowed James's old cloak and tried taking her on a midnight stroll around the castle, but it seemed she had other plans. Let's just say we spent a good part of the night in an empty classroom…_

_I love her. I love being with her. She's so perfect. And beautiful. And lovely in every way. She has flaws, I know. She has a short temper and gets mad when I spend too much time with Dominique. She tends to trip over her shoelaces a lot and is almost always oblivious to everything around her. But I love it all. Every little bit about her. God, I sound like James gushing over Lily. Hope he doesn't find this entry…_

Kierra smiled sheepishly. Why hadn't he ever told her all this when they were dating? She hurriedly turned the page, hoping to find more, but found nothing. She turned a few more pages, finding them all to be blank. But there had hardly been any entries in those two years, yet the book had looked so thick and full…

Several blank pages later, Kierra found another entry. Only this time the ink didn't look nearly as faded as the previous entries. The entry before her was dated 13 June 1994.

_Moved in with Sirius today. I had packed up all my things and sent them to his place, and as we were unpacking I came across this. It barely took half an hour to get through my entries. Pity I wrote so seldom when I was younger. Brief as it was, we had a fun trip down memory lane. We laughed quite a bit at some parts and met awkward silence at others. Those days at Hogwarts seem so distant now. Reading the names of people who are dead now…or people we've lost touch with. It's amazing what time can do to people…_

_26 August 1994 _

_Who am I kidding? Sirius knows me too well. Well, he knows women too well. He knows their ways and he knows how they play with minds and move the hearts. I suppose Sirius deserves more credit—he does know my heart; better than he used to anyway. I can tell him all I want, even believe so myself…but he seems to know what's deep inside my heart. I've been telling myself for days that I'm happy for Kierra. Sirius has finally learned to nod and accept it too…but I know he doesn't believe my words. And frankly, I don't think I do either anymore. The few times I've seen Edmund, I've forced smiles and polite gestures. I'm just jealous. That's all it is. All these years have gone by and I have little to vouch for. Kierra on the other hand—she's done so much with herself. She's getting married to a man that really seems perfect (I honestly can't find anything wrong with him), she's kept her job (something I can hardly manage to do thanks to Mademoiselle Umbridge), she's so stable…and happy. She has the life that I've longed for. And I'm taking it out on her engagement. She seemed so happy to have me back around…and this is how I'm repaying her…_

Kierra gasped and quickly shut the book when she heard a cracking sound from the living room.

"Kierra?" came Remus's voice.

She glanced around the room frantically. She heard his footsteps, and before she realized what she was doing, Kierra was tucking the book into her pocket. The door, which was slightly ajar, came open all the way, and Remus stood at the entrance. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Remus! You're back!" Kierra said a bit too perkily, clapping her hands. "How was your date?"

"Oh—it was good. Actually, much better than last time. Sheila's starting to grow on me a little." Remus replied, still looking quite nonplussed. "Er—what are you doing in here?"

"Oh! Well"—Kierra waved her hand at his bed, which was now clean of all books and papers—"I was just cleaning up the place, and when I brought your laundry in I saw the mess of books, so I thought I'd clean them up for you."

Remus hung his cloak up in his closet. "Oh—thanks. That was very nice of you."

"No problem." Kierra said as she hurried out of Remus's room. She sighed with relief as she made it to her own room.

* * *

It was not until late at night when Kierra could be alone again in her room. She saw the lights go out in Remus's room, and now assured that he wouldn't come bursting in her room for whatever reason and finding her reading his journal, she pulled the book out from underneath her pillows and began reading from where she had left off.

_30 November 1994_

_I'll never admit it to Sirius, but I'm in love. Hell, he knows it, but I won't admit it to him. He'd never let me hear the end of it. Why, of all people does it have to be Kierra though? I'd feel less anxious fancying Elinor—a married woman. But Kierra…I should've seen this coming when I first let her move in. She's beautiful and flirty…and the way she isn't even aware of it makes her even more attractive. _

_I'm in love with my flatmate. I'm in love with my ex-girlfriend. I'm not sure which one sounds worse…_

_25 May 1995_

_She's like a fire raging all around me._

_Burning me when I get too close._

_I'm afraid of all the heat, it's become unbearable._

_At times I want to fight fire with more fire_

_Other times I want to smother it with love._

Kierra turned the page, but there were no more entries.

* * *

_Remus Lupin is going to kill me_, Kierra thought as she lay in bed awake. It was now 3 o'clock in the morning. _I am going to die from sleep deprivation, and it's all his fault._ She shut her eyes, the words in Remus's journal flying through her mind. How did she never see this? How could she have? He never even dropped a hint about his feelings…but were they still the same? His last entry was dated back about a month ago. Had his feelings changed already? He was dating Sheila now, but he didn't seem to be crazy about her. There didn't seem to be much chemistry between them…

Kierra pressed her hand against her stomach, feeling slightly nauseous. What was she supposed to do now? Ignore everything she had read? That was probably the wisest thing to do; clearly Remus didn't want her knowing about his feelings. But she knew she couldn't pretend she didn't know. She wasn't nearly as good at concealing her feelings as Remus was. But how _did_ she feel? She wasn't so sure. All this time, she had felt nothing toward him, and now all of a sudden, she knew what he concealed, and she didn't know how to handle it. Kierra wondered if Remus had felt similarly when he had found out about Kierra liking him when they were students. Kierra's hand involuntarily slid up her torso and fastened over her breast as she closed her eyes and thought about the days when she and Remus were an item. He had been so sweet to her. For some reason, the one memory that always stuck in her mind was his tendency to always take her for ice cream dates even though he himself disliked the dessert, simply because she loved it. He always got her sundaes, picking the cherry off the top for her since she didn't like them. They would sit in the ice cream parlor for hours, laughing and talking, and finally being forced to leave when the store owner found them locking lips…

Kierra found herself smiling slightly at the memories. They had been crazy about each other the year they had dated. They were almost always in each other's company—sitting next to each other in class, dining together in the great hall, sneaking away to the darker, unlit corners of the castle between classes for their more private display of affections…

Kierra shivered as she closed her eyes and recalled the memories…she could practically feel the pads of Remus's fingers pressing against her. And without realizing so, Kierra arched her back slightly, her chest heaving up as she felt his hand closing around her breast. She closed her eyes and sighed, letting the sensations wash over her. He would caress her all over, and then replace his touches with kisses. She imagined him trailing kisses down her neck, and she gasped out loud when she felt his tongue pressing against her nipple. She sat up in bed, breathing fast. She shivered slightly, but she felt hot. Kierra pulled herself out of bed and tiptoed into the kitchen. She was just dehydrated…

Kierra sat down at the kitchen table and closed her eyes as she took a sip of water. What had he done to her? She took a large gulp of water and set the glass on the table. She was a mess. Just as Kierra looked up though, she saw Remus entering the kitchen. He stopped for a moment, slightly startled at finding her there, but then smiled at her.

"I see I'm not the only one who can't sleep then." said Remus as he headed to the sink.

Kierra forced a smile in return. "Yeah…" was all she managed to say.

Remus sat across from her and took a sip of water. He took one look at Kierra's appearance and immediately tried to avert his glance elsewhere. She wore a pink tank top with her pajamas, with one of the straps falling over her shoulder. But it was her nipples pressing right through the fabric of her shirt that made him shift his stare to the clock that hung behind her as he took a particularly large gulp of water. There was no way he was going to survive a summer with her…

* * *

Kierra paced around her room the following afternoon. She needed to somehow slip into Remus's room and stick the journal in some inconspicuous place. Only it was proving to be a bit difficult because Remus had no plans to leave the apartment and was in his room right now. She flipped through his journal, staring at the pages blankly as she tried to come up with a scheme. She could just leave it hidden in her room for now, and when he went to use the bathroom…Yes, everyone uses the bathroom, and he would have to go sooner or later. She would just have to keep an eye on him until he did so…

Kierra jumped up in surprise, flinging Remus's journal backwards overhead as her door opened. He eyed her warily. Why didn't Remus knock? He _always_ knocked…

"Er—I saw that we were out of a few things. Would you mind running to the store? Or should I?" he asked, looking past Kierra to see what she had thrown onto her bed.

Kierra stepped to the right, hoping to block Remus's view. "No, that's alright. I can go. Just—er—give me a second to change."

"You look fine. It's just the grocery store, Kierra." Remus said, smiling slightly.

"Yes I know, but I don't like the shirt I'm wearing…" Kierra said as she pushed Remus out and shut the door. "I'll be ready in less than a minute!"

Kierra sighed with relief as she hurried to her bed to grab Remus's journal. She glanced quickly around her room. He had caught a glimpse of it, but he didn't see it fully. But he probably suspected that she was hiding something now. Kierra tucked the journal inside her purse, and after a quick change of shirts, she headed for the grocery store.

* * *

As she made her way through the dairy aisle, Kierra couldn't help but notice that at the end of the aisle stood a small woman with short black hair, studying the labels on two cartons of yogurt. It was Sheila. Kierra was halfway in making a U-turn to avoid passing her, but then an idea struck her. She slowly rolled her trolley down the aisle, past the milk and eggs, past the cheese…

"Sheila! Hi!" she said brightly. Sheila looked up and smiled broadly when she saw her.

"Hello Kierra!" she replied. "How are you?"

Kierra smiled. "I'm great. It's so nice to be done now with classes. For once, not having any paperwork to deal with…"

Sheila rolled her eyes but continued smilling cheerily. "Speak for yourself. As ze headmaster's secretary, I 'ave to be zere 'ear round…"

Kierra laughed. "That's right…I'm sorry. So how's everything going? How's everything with Remus? Is he treating you well?"

Sheila beamed. "Absolutely. "He is such a gentleman! Though a bit too gentleman-like at times, if you ask me." She said, rolling her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…he didn't tell you how ze dates went?" she asked.

Kierra shook her head. "He doesn't really kiss and tell."

Sheila frowned. "As if zere was much to tell about. We've only kissed once. On our last date. And it was on ze cheek! He must be very shy…"

Kierra smiled slightly, not being able to resist the temptation. "No, not really. He's not that shy."

Sheila raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat offended. "Oh really?"

"Oh no, don't take it personally, Sheila." Kierra said quickly, pulling a look of concern on her face. "It's not you at all. It's just…well, never mind. It's a long story. I should've kept my mouth shut."

Sheila looked so absorbed by Kierra that she absently placed both yogurt cartons in her trolley. "No, what is it?"

"I can't"—

"Oh, come! He is my boyfriend now! I think I 'ave a right to know…"

Kierra sighed in defeat. "I know. And I feel like I have an obligation to tell you, as a friend…I don't want you being deceived."

"Deceived?" Sheila breathed. "What do you mean?"

"Well…do you remember in the beginning of the school year? All those rumors flying around about him…"

"That he was a poof?" Sheila asked. Kierra nodded. "Yes, I heard those…zey are not true, are zey?"

Kierra shrugged. "I want to say they're not…but honestly Sheila, I live with him. I went to school with him. And well"—she sighed dramatically—"I don't know. He hasn't said anything to me…but I think he is. He's just afraid to admit it."

Sheila frowned. "I always thought he was a bit…different. But…are you sure?"

Kierra nodded. "A couple of weeks ago, I found a large-sized t-shirt under the futon. I didn't recognize it. And Remus said it was his…but I mean come on, you've seen how skinny he is. He would be drowning in a shirt that size." She felt a pang of guilt as she saw the look of distress on Sheila's face. But it was too late now…

"So…why would he ask me out?" she asked. "To cover the rumors up…make him look straight?"

Kierra nodded. "I'm sorry, Sheila."

"No, I'm sorry. I understand if he's frustrated and worried about his image…but he _used_ me!"

Kierra bit her lip, feeling slightly nervous as she realized they were in a grocery store. "Listen Sheila, I need to go. But I'm sorry…I'm sorry I had to tell you…are you going to…you know, dump him?"

"Oh you bet I am." Sheila said angrily. "Is he home right now? Because I think I might pay him a visit."

"Er—yes—he should be home." Kierra replied. "But Sheila—I don't know if you should…he'd kill me if he found out I told you…"

Sheila pat her on the shoulder sympathetically. "Don't worry, I won't say I heard from you. In fact, I won't give him any reasons. I'll tell him I just don't want to see him anymore. I suppose I shouldn't be too harsh anyway. It's not entirely his fault that he has a weak character…"

Kierra nodded and bid Sheila good luck. As she headed for the checkout, she felt her insides gnawing at her. What had she just done? What had possessed her to do that? Sheila was her _friend_…Not a very good friend…but all the same…she was a friend. She lied to Sheila so she could dump Remus. But for what? What had she accomplished? Kierra had a sudden urge to write to Dominique, confessing her guilt to her and begging for advice on what to do. Instead of apparating back home, Kierra walked the way, hoping to avoid meeting Sheila in their flat. When Kierra reached her flat, she took a deep breath, hoping Sheila was not there, and that Remus was too distracted to ask her what took her so long. She opened the door and found Remus sitting on the futon in the living room, his hands in his face.

"Hey" she said brightly. Probably a bit too brightly. There were no signs of Sheila anywhere. "You look glum. Everything alright?"

Remus lifted his face from his hands and looked at her. "Oh…not a good day. I seem to be losing things. Sheila just stopped by to tell me she was through with me."

"Oh"—Kierra put the groceries and her purse on the ground and sat next to him, giving him a hug—"I'm sorry!"

"She didn't even say why. She just…ended it. Like that."

"Are you going to be ok?" Kierra asked.

Remus shrugged. "I wasn't really close to her. It was just odd, I guess. But I think I'll be fine. Thanks."

"Are you sure?" Kierra pressed him as she got up and took the groceries to the kitchen to put them away. "I mean you don't seem particularly devastated…but still"—

"No, I'm fine…really." Remus said. "Do you need help with the groceries?"

"No, that's alright." Kierra said as she tried to tuck a box of cereal into the pantry, but to no avail. It was too tall. "Hey Remus, can you get my wand out of my purse? I need to drink this box of cereal to make it fit…"

Kierra heard Remus unzipping her purse, following by the sound of rummaging. He seemed to have stopped though, and almost immediately Kierra understood. She burst into the living room, but too late. Remus had withdrawn his journal from her bag, his eyes widened slightly in surprise. Oh, there was no way getting out of this…

"Another thing that I lost today…" he said, staring at the book. He stood up and looked at Kierra, narrowing his eyes at her. She cowered slightly, but his expression did not soften. "You stole this from my room—how long have you had it?"

"When I was cleaning up the other day…I found it…and…I didn't mean to. I'm sorry"—Kierra stammered.

"You didn't _mean_ to?" he asked incredulously. "So you accidentally picked this up and stuck it in your purse? Accidentally read it too, didn't you?"

"Remus"—

But Remus did not stay to listen. He brushed past her, clutching his journal in one hand, and headed towards his room.

"Remus"—she repeated, following after him. Her mind raced, but her heart beat even faster. She grabbed a hold of his arm and with some effort, she whirled him around. And before she could think of something to say to him, she pulled him up against her by his shirt and kissed him.

She pressed her lips firmly against his, closing her eyes in anticipation. But nothing came. She pressed him, but as she did so, she had a fleeting image of Dominique leaning over a table to kiss Remus. She had a feeling he had been equally unresponsive to her. She pulled away, her cheeks burning with shame. She looked at him apprehensively, waiting for what seemed like an eternity for him to speak.

"What was that?" he asked, looking very taken aback though traces of anger still remained on his face.

"I—well—you love me!" she found herself saying.

"I'm sorry?"

"You love me!" Kierra repeated. "I know I shouldn't have looked through your diary"—Remus winced slightly at hearing the word—"but…I'm glad I did. You had no intention of telling me about your feelings, did you?"

"What feelings?" he asked. "I haven't written in that thing for over a month. And it's nice to know you took the trouble of reading the entire thing."

"Remus, come on! I said I was sorry…and I mean it! I felt so guilty about all of this…but…curiosity just got the better of me. And this is good now! Your feelings are out in the open"—

"Those weren't my feelings." Remus cut in. "Just…moodiness. I didn't mean it."

"Bull"—

"You know, you seem quite keen to assert your knowledge on my feelings, yet you haven't said a word about your own." Remus said.

Kierra did not reply at first. She did not know how she felt. Up until reading Remus's journal, she had not really been attracted to him at all…and Remus seemed to read her mind.

"You don't love me." He said quietly. "And I don't love you."

"You're just saying that because you're afraid of rejection." Kierra replied.

"No, I don't." Remus said. "It's the same as last time. Do you remember when we broke up years ago? You said it was just lust that was holding us together, and when that disappeared, we would have nothing left to hold onto. That's what it is Kierra. It's not love. It's lust. And that will die away in time. It always does."

"It's not, Remus." Kierra said. "I know it's not for me. I wouldn't go to such great lengths in such a blind manner…"

"What are you talking about?" asked Remus.

"Well…" Kierra started slowly, hoping the story would amuse Remus and cause him to forgive her. "Sheila…I sort of ran into her when I was going for groceries. And well…I sort of fed her this cock-and-bull story about how you were…sort of…homosexual. And that you were a closet one at that…having a secret affair with some guy…" Kierra said, cringing as she saw the changes in Remus's facial expression.

"You told her that?" he asked incredulously. "Why?"

"I don't know!" Kierra exclaimed, stomping her foot hard. "I don't know what came over me. I just saw her…and I didn't want her to be with you…and I just told her all of that so she would break up with you…" She stared expectantly at him, wondering if he was going to laugh or shout some more.

"I can't believe you told her all that…" he muttered. "Just so…what? So you could be with me? Were you planning on coming home and saying something about it? Because you didn't seem to leave that impression when you came home! And how could you say that? Isn't she one of your friends?"

"Yes, but"—

"So, what? Is that what friendship is to you? Just lie to your friends…playing with them like they're your pawns, with no regard for their feelings? Just to get it your way?"

"I felt bad, Remus"—

"For about five minutes, right?" he retorted. "I can't even believe you have the capacity to be so selfish."

"Selfish?" Kierra exclaimed. "I'm not _selfish!_ I was thinking of you, Remus!"

"No you weren't. You were thinking of yourself. You don't even know why you did it, except to satisfy yourself. You didn't like the idea of Sheila being with me, so you drove her away, and that was it. You did it all for yourself." Remus replied.

"You're not being fair, Remus." Kierra said in a hurtful tone.

Remus's expression softened slightly, but his tone of voice did not. "I am. I'm telling you facts. That's how you acted. You didn't care about Sheila's feelings, how incredibly used she would feel if she knew your intentions. You didn't care about how I felt either. I could've been more attached to her, and the breakup could've hurt me more. And if that weren't enough, you certainly didn't care about my feelings when you stole my journal. You couldn't respect my space or privacy, simply because you just had to satisfy your curiosity." He swallowed and looked hard at Kierra before turning away and heading to his room. "I have nothing more to say to you." He muttered.


	54. Chapter 55: A New Mile

_A/N: Well, it's with a heavy heart that I present to you the final chapter of "Last Mile". (wipes tear from eyes) And without further adieu, Chapter 55: _

Chapter 55: A New Mile

Kierra stared blankly at her lesson plan book, cupping her cheeks with her hands as she propped her elbows on her desk. She was wasting her time. The lesson plans did not have to be submitted for review until next week. She should work on it later, when the deadline drew nearer… Kierra shut her book and glanced to her left, frowning as she stared at the wall that separated her room from Remus's. They hadn't spoken to each other all day—except in the morning when the post arrived and Remus had handed her a letter from Harvey saying "Your mail" and Kierra responded with a thank you—it was driving Kierra mad. He wouldn't even look her in the eye when he gave her the letter. He had practically shoved it into her hands before retreating to his room.

_Well if he wants to be a baby about it all, fine by me…_ Kierra mused as she began to busy herself again with tidying her room. _Sure, he's rightly upset with me…but he doesn't have to give me the cold shoulder!_

And yet a part of her knew he had a right to. She had messed up big time, and he was right to call her selfish. She hated that. But what could she do now about it? Though she hadn't openly admitted anything to Remus the night before, he _had_ to know that she was attracted to him. For God's sake, she had _kissed_ him! Surely he wasn't that thick to not pick up on her feelings. He had to know how she felt, yet he didn't seem to care. No acknowledgement of her feelings, no forgiveness…she _had_ apologized after all. He could've forgiven her and swept her off her feet, telling her it was alright…but he did nothing. And he probably would do nothing for some time. Not that she had expected anything of him… She _had_ invaded his privacy and told ridiculous lies about him to Sheila to get them to break up. She probably would ignore herself too if that had been done to her…

Kierra sighed as she abandoned her laundry and headed out of her room. Perhaps it was time she took matters back into her own hands…

* * *

Remus sighed as he crumpled up the response he had written to Dominique. It was no use. He imagined her refuting every possible argument he could think of for not forgiving Kierra. He looked over Dominique's letter again and frowned. He had been expecting a bit of an alliance from her…

_15 June 1995_

_Dear Remus,_

_Thank you for your kind letter. Well, at least the well-wishing part. I just finished moving all my stuff to the castle today, and I have to admit, it's so strange being back! It'll be even weirder when the students come pouring in a couple of months. I went and visited all the places I was familiar with—Gryffindor common room of course, the dormitories (I found "KN loves RL" etched against the post of a bed that a certain someone used to sleep in! Oh, and after reading your letter—I have a lot more to say about her than that!), the QUIDDITCH PITCH…I felt like crying and laughing when I came out there…just imagining Sirius and James flying on their brooms, waving cockily at the audience…and Frank and Alice, the amazing duo…Oh Remus, this move has certainly been bittersweet. _

_Well, before I get too nostalgic, I ought to pull myself back into present-day reality. I can't believe this has all happened. How come you never told me about your feelings for Kierra? Did you tell Sirius? I mean, since he always made jokes about you two…I didn't think there was any truth to what he was saying, but now I'm having second thoughts… Anyway, that's neither here nor there. The fact of the matter is you like her. Or liked her, as you put it…though I'm disinclined to believe that. You don't suddenly become void of all the feelings you have for a person simply because they upset you or hurt you. I understand Kierra did a terrible thing. I imagine if she had read my diary back when we were at Hogwarts, I would have bitch-slapped her and then hexed her to no end. Of course, you're not really in a position to do that to her, and I wouldn't recommend it anyway. And lying to get that Sheila woman to break up with you…that was pretty nasty. Though I have to add here, Sheila seems a bit dim for your taste…Kierra just told her you were gay and she didn't even question it? She didn't even say anything to you about it? That's just…well, either Kierra's extremely conniving and manipulative or Sheila is just very dumb. I suppose it doesn't look too nice either way…_

_But listen, can you honestly say you hate Kierra for what she did? Yeah it was awful…but she didn't act arbitrarily—much as it seems she did. There were reasons for her behavior—reasons she might not have even been aware of herself. She read your journal. It could just mean she's very nosy (she didn't seem like it when we were at school together—hardly even aware of her own business let alone others') or maybe she's just interested in you. Of course, there are so many levels of interest. Mothers are interested in reading their daughters' (er—and sons') diaries, just as friends and lovers are. She wanted to separate Sheila from you, and she lied to do it. And this was a friend of hers, you say. And then she kissed you. Come on, Remus. Put 2 + 2 together! I'm sure you already have…you just don't want to admit that you and Kierra are working at the same equation. I'm rolling my eyes right now, Remus. And you know why. This is ridiculously elementary. You've fancied her all this time, and now she's suddenly going for you. Of course there's the matter of her doing some horrible things along the way, but just set that aside and move it! She might change her mind and resent you for being such a prick about this!_

_Much Love (despite your idiocy), _

_Dominique_

Remus sighed. Dominique didn't always have such a foul mouth. He folded up her letter and tucked it inside the top drawer of his desk, deciding to postpone a response until he could think of something better to say than _Kierra is nosy and deceptive—that's enough reason to void myself of any attraction I might've had towards her_. He knew he was right about that, but there was no point telling Dominique that—she would just send him a foot long letter, lecturing him and calling him immature, amongst other names. He would just tell her to get over it and look past it. He hated to admit it, but she was right. Sooner or later he'd be able to come to terms with what happened, and he wouldn't feel as vexed with Kierra as he was now. Perhaps though, he ought to break the silence he had been keeping with Kierra…

He knocked lightly on her door. No answer. He knocked harder.

"Er—Kierra?" he asked uncertainly. "You in there?"

He slowly opened the door and peered inside, only to find the room empty. Remus frowned, and closing the door he headed out to the living room and then to the kitchen, only to find them vacant as well. She had left, just like that? No notice or warning… Remus hurried into his room and retrieved his wand from his desk and tucked it inside his robes. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to remember if Kierra had any appointments or plans for the day. She had none. She couldn't have gone for groceries, as she had already gone yesterday. School was out, and most of her friends were on vacation. He sighed, and keeping his eyes shut to concentrate on the deserted Alleyway that intersected with Aveyron's wizarding commercial street, Avenue Creuse, Remus disapparated.

* * *

Without stopping to breath, Kierra burst into Remus's room upon apparating back into their flat.

"Remus, we need to—er—Remus?"

His room was empty. She circled their tiny flat, which took approximately five seconds, and found it completely empty. He was gone. She plopped onto the futon in the living room and sighed tiredly. All the apparating around town and verbal abuse she had taken, and he wasn't even home to hear about it. Great. She wondered where he could've gone…

* * *

After checking the last store in Avenue Creuse and receiving his fourth glare from a shop clerk for not making any purchases, Remus fell resignedly onto a bench. She wasn't even in the art supply store—the place she tended to go to when she felt depressed. Or at least he figured so. She had mentioned once that buying art supplies always made her feel better when she was feeling down. Perhaps she had meant muggle stores…she _was_ fond of both types of art, after all. Remus frowned, trying to remember where the store was. Kierra had taken him once…It was a large crafts store, full of papers of every texture and color, odds and ends like buttons and feathers (which couldn't be used as quills, according to Kierra) and aisles upon aisles of paint, which Kierra had once spend well over fifteen minutes standing in front of before settling on a small bottle of black paint. La Maison d'Art. That was the name of the place. It wasn't that far from their flat. A few twists and turns in the streets…he remembered passing by three cafés on the way—cafés—Remus sighed—of course, she also liked those places. Feeling slightly renewed at having a few more destinations to check out, Remus disapparated, deciding to check the art store, and take a look into all the cafés that were on the way…

* * *

Kierra grimaced as the short, mousy looking librarian who had told her off pushed her out of the library, snapping at her in French. As the double doors slammed behind her, she winced. _How rude._ As she made her way down the steps and onto the street, she made a mental note to tell Remus that the library wasn't the wonderful place he always made it out to be. They had just kicked her out—out of a public institution—they had no right. Sure, she might have snatched books away from a few people who were reading in the library, but that was only because she had thought them to be Remus. _Serves them right,_ Kierra thought, _burying their faces in books like that…they were straining their necks and their eyes_. Stupid librarians…they were always old, batty looking women with glasses and grey hair done up in tight buns. And she couldn't understand how on earth her peering at people between bookshelves made her 'lurking about creepily'…

Now a block away from the library, Kierra stopped and glanced around. Now where would she go? She had already checked out all the nearest bookstores, including the one in Avenue Creuse. Where else could he have gone? Well, it had been a little over an hour since she had left the flat…perhaps he had returned home. Kierra turned around and headed in the direction of their flat, opting to walk back instead of apparating back, in hopes that she might suddenly remember another place to check for him…

* * *

Remus shifted the weight of his bag from one hand to the other as he crossed over a bridge in the neighborhood park that came along the way to his flat. He had given up on his search for Kierra and opted to buy her a 'sorry' present for being so angry with her. He just hoped she was home by now. He also hoped she liked her present. He shifted the heavy box again back onto his other arm. He had no idea art supplies could be so expensive. He knew that she was constantly running out of paint, so he had decided that the most practical gift for her was a large supply of paint bottles. He glanced down into the bag to make sure the ribbons that had been elegantly tied around the box had not been smashed or undone. The saleswoman had raised an eyebrow at and looked at him strangely when he asked if they would put his purchase in a box and gift wrap it for him, saying that they generally did not wrap gifts. But after a fair amount of coaxing, and a bit of flirting (he smiled sadly—Sirius and James would be proud of him), she stuck the paint bottles in a cardboard box, wrapped it up in newspaper, and tied up the package with white ribbon from a spool that sat in the bin marked 'returned items' at the checkout counter. Despite the less than high quality materials used, the lady had done a wonderful job with the wrapping. Much better than he would ever be able to do without magic anyway…

He just hoped that he wasn't too late. Dominique had warned him that Kierra might start to resent him for being angry too long. But it had just been a day…that wasn't too long, was it? She couldn't be mad at him…just yesterday she had been apologizing, looking positively miserable with herself. He frowned slightly as he passed by the playground where several children and parents ran about noisily. He shouldn't have been so harsh with her. He had felt bad about it the moment he turned his back on her. And now he was missing her…not having spoken to her since yesterday, except to give her a letter this morning. He tried shaking the feeling off. He was letting this all get to his head. He was actually seeing her now, emerging from another pathway that intersected his. She was staring off in different directions, looking distressed and…very real. Remus blinked. It _was_ her…

The moment he had opened his mouth to call out her name, Kierra looked up at him, her eyes widening slightly as she hurried over.

"There you are!" they said at once. Remus looked relieved. Kierra still looked distressed.

"I've been looking all over you!" Kierra said.

Remus raised an eyebrow at her. "You were looking for me? I was looking for you! I wanted to apologize for being so mean yesterday, and you disappeared from the apartment! I didn't even hear you disapparate…"

Kierra smiled sheepishly. "Oh, sorry…I was just sort of in a rush…and when I came back to tell you where I had gone"—

"Where did you go?" Remus asked.

"To Sheila's…" she replied with a heavy sigh.

"Sheila's?" Remus repeated, looking positively bemused.

"Yeah…you gave me quite the guilt trip, Mr. Lupin." Kierra said, smiling ruefully at him. "I was a complete cow. I wasn't even thinking when I…well…when I acted the way I did. So I thought I'd try to set things straight…"

Remus's eyes widened slightly. "You didn't"—

Kierra nodded. "I told Sheila everything. How I made up everything to her because…well…because Ireallylikeyou…" she mumbled.

Remus couldn't help but smile. "Oh my. How did she react?" he asked, deciding to shift the conversation a bit since he was feeling slightly sympathetic for Kierra when she blushed.

"Not well. She yelled quite a bit even though I apologized so many times. But she won't any of it—understandably, I know. It's going to be very awkward next term. And I reckon she's going to start spitting in my morning coffee. I should invest in a flask like Moody…" Kierra said thoughtfully.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Remus said, smiling slightly at the image of Kierra carrying around a bent-up, old hip flask like Moody's.

Kierra looked up at him and laughed lightly. "You have nothing to be sorry about. It was all me. I seriously messed up… I remember when I left Edmund, you told me that I respect the ones I love too much to hurt them…and I just hurt you. I shouldn't have…I greatly respect you, Remus…I did a horrible thing to you…I'm so sorry"—

Remus smiled and waved his hand dismissively. "Stop apologizing. It's ok"—

"It's not! I'll never be able to forgive myself for being such an idiot…for causing this mess…and…and…never noticing anything! I wish I had picked up on your feelings…I'm just always so oblivious to those things"—

"It's alright"—Remus had started, but immediately stopped mid-sentence when he saw Kierra crying—"Kierra?"

"I'm sorry!" she wailed loudly enough for the parents and children playing nearby to look up from their swing sets and see-saws. "I wish we never broke up…I like you, Remus. I"—she swallowed the next word, realizing it would be a rash declaration—"I _really_ like you…and all that stuff about us not being able to last…because it was lust…that's a load of bullocks. I realize I was the one who had first said it all those years ago…but I was completely wrong. It was love that kept us together. I mean"—she felt her cheeks redden. Why did she say 'love'? There were a million other words she could have used. Adoration…affection…but she had to use the strongest of them all—"well…whatever emotional equivalent you want to use there…" she said quickly. "That's what it was. And that's how I feel…and I _think_ that's how you feel too. But I don't know….maybe you changed your mind, or you never felt that way in the first place, and you're just being dramatic in your writing…but…just…whatever you feel, don't fight it. Please…just…just tell me honestly how you feel."

Remus watched her wipe her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt. "Are you done?" he asked. Kierra nodded, and watched him expectantly. He leaned forward and kissed her.

He had meant to make it soft and brief, but Kierra had wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him against her, deepening the kiss significantly.

"I told you zey were shacking up!"

Kierra and Remus parted immediately and glanced around, only to find Jean-Benoît Gustave and Julie Nadeau, two of their students, observing them with great amusement. Remus felt himself blushing what was probably a ridiculously bright shade of red. Kierra however, looked unabashed.

"Detention, Gustave. First day we get back!" Kierra said sternly, though a smile crept along her mouth. Jean-Benoît protested while Julie burst into laughter. Kierra turned to Remus and grinned. "Let's get a move on. I reckon by the time school starts again, rumors will be flying that I'm your transsexual lover or something…"

* * *

Remus grunted in pain as his tailbone crashed against the doorknob of their flat. "At least wait until we're inside." Remus said quietly as he gently pulled Kierra away from himself. She frowned at him, and he smiled in return as he pulled out his keys. "I'm sorry, I just don't think this is something for our neighbors to watch through their peepholes…"

Kierra rolled her eyes at him as opened the door and led the way inside. She turned around to shut the door behind her, and just as the door locked with a clicking sound, she felt him whirling her around to face him. They looked into each others' eyes, but only for a moment. They leaned towards each other at once and began to pick up from where they left off. After a minute though, Kierra felt her legs growing tired from standing up. She pulled away and opened her mouth to suggest that the move to a more comfortable place, but Remus seemed to read her mind.

He heaved her against the wall forcefully, and pressed his mouth against hers, putting his hands to her hips, allowing for her to rest against his grip as well as against the wall. Remus felt his hips push against hers, causing her to let out a muffled groan. A moment later, a sharp knocking sound came from the wall they were leaning against, causing Remus and Kierra to jump back and gasp.

"Mrs. Danglars…" Kierra muttered.

"Er, right…" Remus said, looking around uncertainly.

"My room…" Kierra muttered, grabbing his hand and pulling him into her room… "my bed's not made anyway…"

"Your—your bed?" Remus stammered. "Are—are you…did you want to"—

Kierra's eyes widened slightly as they entered his room and she had let go of his hand. "Oh! Did you not want to?" she asked, feeling herself blush. "I'm sorry—no, we don't have to. I mean"—

"No, it's ok…if _you_ want to…" Remus said quickly.

"Only if you do…" Kierra replied with equal speed. "Er—do you?"

"Oh—well"—Remus felt himself blushing darker than Kierra. How does one say 'yes' without sounding desperate? He swallowed. "Yeah, ok…" he said, feeling rather stupid.

Kierra laughed as she led him to her bed and through off the covers. "Stupid question."

"How long have you been waiting to do all that again?" Kierra breathed an hour later. She glanced sideways and smiled at Remus, who was pulling Kierra's blanket over his waist.

"Too long." Remus replied in an equally tired voice. "Been dreaming about it for too long…"

"You dreamt"—

Remus stopped adjusting the blankets and blushed. "Er"—

"Have you been dreaming of me?" Kierra asked, smiling coyly at him.

"No"—he said at once—"No…I wouldn't say"—

"Were they dirty?" Kierra cut in, rolling onto her stomach and propping herself against his chest. "Oh, tell me they were dirty!"

"Never mind that." Remus said quickly, leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead. "It does not do to dwell on dreams"—

"Oh cut the crap, Remus!" Kierra said. "Come on and tell me…maybe I'll make them come true! After all"—Kierra put on a face that was all too familiar…he winced, knowing quite well what was coming—"_A dream is a wish your heart makes…"_ she started in a sing-song voice, if it could be called that…

"Kierra"—

"_When you're fast asleep_…"

Remus laughed despite the horrible sounds. "Kierra, are you drunk?"

"_In dreams you will lose your heartache_"—

"Oh please stop, Kierra. You're a terrible singer…"

She laughed, and leaned against him, planting a kiss on his cheek.

"So…tell me…what did I wear?"

Remus groaned, letting his head fall back against the pillows.

"Was I even wearing anything?" She asked, hitting him on his arm as her eyes widened in moch-surprise. "You dirty man! Tell me! Don't be such a closed book!"

"I am not a closed book…" he replied.

"Oh you are too." She said. And after a moment's hesitation, she added "and the one time I opened your book, you had a tantrum…"

As expected, Remus scowled at her while she laughed.

"Come on…I know you've got a wild, untamed beast inside you…"

"Yes, but he's not coming out for another two weeks…"

Kierra hit him again and laughed. "You know what I mean…"

"Yes, I know exactly what you mean." Remus replied, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head. "But that is for me to know and you to find out."

Kierra looked up at him and grinned. "I better not have to wait too long to find out."

Remus merely smiled and leaned forward to kiss her on the lips, but Kierra pulled away from him, making a face. "Don't you even—I don't know where that mouth has been!"

Remus laughed as he leaned forward and attempted to make contact with her mouth again, only to be pushed away by Kierra, who proceeded to dive under her blankets for cover. Remus followed, and they continued with their game into the evening, until a dazzling white crescent moon rose to the night sky, shining through the window of Kierra's room, lulling them to sleep.

_The End._

_ lyrics (that Kierra sung :P ) are from Cinderella. "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes." _

A/N: Well…that's all! If you all enjoyed this story even half as much as I loved writing it, I would be very happy. Thank you for reading through all 55/54 chapters…While I honestly greatly appreciate each and every person who has read and/or reviewed (and I do read and enjoy every single one of them, though I generally don't reply to those on as I need the reviewer's email addy for that), I need to single out a few people who have made all the writing all-nighters I've pulled (including this one tonight..gaah! it's almost 4am!) worth it. Emma2801, I'm not quite sure what to say. You were my very first reviewer when I started writing HP fanfics, and you've hung around this long. I guess all I can say is that a chapter doesn't seem complete without a review from you! Holly, your reviews in French make me laugh out loud. Mainly because I don't actually _know_ French…but it's all good…It takes a second to look things up ;) Lupin is My Hero—I thoroughly enjoy _not_ being able to _not_ reply to e-mails. And I love your long, thorough reviews :P PottersChick958, NovemberWind, A.K. Anonymous, Recreated (you seem to have disappeared, but if you ever come around…) who were regular reviewers on As with Emenem10 from hpff—you're one of the few who take the trouble to correct me! If I ever go back and edit, I think all I have to do is check out your reviews! Lol (that's a good thing!) who else…DEE, yes…I'm used to seeing your name too. And padfootwalksforeva—your reviews always make me laugh out loud…and babygohan of course with your animaniacs inspired goodbyes…;) Alright, I know there are so many more out there and the names are suddenly filling my head, but I really have to go to the bathroom now. Right, I don't think anyone wanted to know that…sighs…ah well. Far as a sequel goes—still on the maybe…(ok, most likely…I have so many plot ideas for it I probably won't be able to resist, even if it becomes discredited with info JKR gives us in HBP) but I will definitely continue to write, and I hope you stick around for the rest of the journey: )


End file.
